Subject: [NEXTEL-1] (unknown)

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 12:38:33 -0400

Commercial Wireless and Public Safety

Rik Rasmussen
Communications Maintenance Administrator
City of Durham, NC
[email-masked]
919-560-4175 x 244

Since the events of September 11, 2001, we have seen heightened concern over the readiness of Public Safety agencies to respond to crisis events. While this has created increased expenses for local and federal agencies, much of the increased spending is going to commercial enterprises providing the necessary services and equipment. This has resulted in a noticeable increase of marketing effort by many vendors to attract their share of these funds.

In the area of wireless communications for Public Safety, at least one commercial wireless provider has embarked on an aggressive campaign to highlight their claims of ability to provide communications for the needs of First Responders and those who seek “interoperability.”

While these commercial providers of public communications do have products and services that are feature rich and serve the needs of the consumer and business user fairly adequately, they have limited capabilities that seriously impede their use in the Public Safety arena.

Some commercial wireless carriers provide a “push to talk” feature similar in operation to that familiar to users of Public Safety radios. The push button itself is however the only similarity the two services share. The Public Safety agency that adopts a commercial carrier to provide communications during crisis may be creating a crisis of communications when the need is greatest.

Commercial wireless is a for profit venture who’s first priority is to serve the stockholder. Public Safety communications is a necessary expense to the community whose first priority is the public’s safety. Fire stations are not located based on potential highest volume of use, but rather reduction of response time concerns. Public Safety communications systems are not built based on high traffic count and revenue demographics, but rather are built for total coverage of the public to be served, and with a high degree of reliability and survivability. What apparently is not cost effective for a commercial provider is essential for a true Public Safety communications system.

Compare the experience of those who depend on commercial providers during hurricanes and ice storms such as those we have experienced in North Carolina in recent years, with the users of properly designed and maintained Public Safety radio systems.  While commercial carriers often have multiple day outages due to loss of power and communications links, Public Safety systems are (or should be) designed to continue to serve in these situations.

The primary weakness of commercial wireless in the area of Public Safety communications is the inability to provide large group dispatch service. The architecture of commercial systems is geared to one-to-one types of communications such as phone calls and one-to-one direct push to talk calls. The primary use of a Public Safety radio system is in the large group dispatch mode. An officer in trouble does not want to make a one-to-one call for help; he wants to alert all his fellow officers to his situation. The group dispatch ability is crucial to Public Safety.

While some providers claim to be able to provide “interoperability,” it seems that they are defining the term differently from what we in Public Safety understand it to mean. Public Safety interoperability means that in a crisis where multiple agencies assist each other, they have the ability to communicate between their various systems, using existing radios. It does not mean buying another radio to carry and subscribing to a service that bills every month, crisis or not. The supplemental use of commercial providers may be of some value in such situations between specific individuals, but is of little value to multiple fire departments needing to coordinate a fire scene, possibly in an area of poor coverage by the commercial systems.

Public Safety agencies may benefit from supplemental use of commercial wireless providers for less critical communications, but need to be careful that they truly understand the costs of using such systems. Funds should not be exhausted on commercial services when they might be better-spent improving reliability of the Public Safety communications system.

Radio frequencies are a scarce resource today. Public Safety system operators must protect their current frequencies by insuring all licenses are renewed on time. At least one commercial provider has been reported to be making approaches to public agencies suggesting a “partnership” that would result in radio channels being transferred to the commercial provider. Those entrusted with the public’s safety should be very skeptical of such proposals and seek knowledgeable assistance in making such decisions.

Comparing commercial wireless to Public Safety communications is like comparing a fire truck to a U-haul rental, each is great for its intended purpose, but one cannot do the other’s specialized work.

Public Safety communications nationally is struggling with issues of interference from commercial providers, spectrum shortages, high cost of infrastructure, interoperability, and increased demand for services. This is not an area that chases every new fad or gadget. We must be more vigilant than ever to be sure that we have the right tools to do the work in the worst circumstances. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web.com&#153; - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com.

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Rent DVDs Online - Over 14,500 titles.
No Late Fees & Free Shipping.
Try Netflix for FREE!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Tq9otC/XP.FAA/3jkFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/