Hardly a week goes by without someone claiming some security threat, whether it be satellite technology transfers, lost-and-found hard drives at Los Alamos National Laboratory, nuclear spying, or open house at the State Department.
A far less sensational risk is identified in a new National Park Service-commissioned report on counterterrorism: radio communications equipment that is unreliable and not interoperable. The report, obtained by The Washington Post, concluded that monuments in the nation’s capital are vulnerable to terrorist attack.
But the security risk of public-safety radios without interoperability goes far beyond the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.
The weak link of local, state and federal officials communicating past each other over a patchwork of frequencies was highlighted in the deadly bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993 and the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995.
On a daily basis, local, state and federal authorities need to communicate with other in real-time.
That’s what makes the work of the Public Safety National Coordination Committee, chaired by Kathleen Wallman, so important. The panel’s recommendations, submitted to the Federal Communications Commission in February, set aside a small chunk of the 24 megahertz-earmarked for public safety in the 700 MHz band via 1997 legislation-for nationwide interoperable communications.
Now it’s up to the FCC to act swiftly. The NCC recommended Project 25’s 12.5-kilohertz FDMA standard for the 700 MHz band, rejecting unproven 6.25-kilohertz narrowband channel technologies.
There are indications, however, that the FCC’s wireless bureau is not altogether comfortable with adopting the Project 25 standard for 700 MHz public safety.
The FCC, based on a staff proposal in progress, is expected soon to launch a rule making on NCC’s recommendations for technical and operational standards in new 700 MHz public-safety frequencies.
Interestingly, some of the key players in the 700 MHz public-safety standards debate are the same as-or related to-those from the U.S.-European trade fight over 3G mobile-phone standards.
Clearly, there is a balancing here. But the weight of evidence appears to favor the Project 25 standard for 700 MHz public-safety communications. It is here today and works, not to mention having been blessed by American National Standards Institute. The 12.5-kilohertz standard, though utilizing a wider bandwidth than 6.25-kilohertz technologies, still meets FCC spectrum-efficiency requirements. Moreover, it allows conventional, trunked and unit-to-unit operations.
In this case, too much bureaucratic hand wringing could cost lives.
