Interoperability debate pits software, hardware makers : Pickering latest legislator to take up first-responder public-safety problems

Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) plans to offer a bill mandating a federal standard for interoperable public-safety communications if one cannot be achieved voluntarily. But emerging technological solutions appear to be altering the broader debate over first-responder spectrum and interoperability and disrupting the competitive landscape at a time when billions of federal dollars are being earmarked to improve emergency communications among firefighters, police and medics.
“I hope to work with this committee to introduce legislation that would set up a process for the industry and the emergency response community to come up voluntarily with an interoperability standard. The failure to do so [by] a certain date, I would then hope to work with the FCC to have an FCC proceeding to do it on a mandatory basis if there’s a failure to do it on a voluntary basis,” said Pickering at a recent hearing of the House Commerce subcommittee on telecom and the Internet.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin backed the idea.
“I think it is appropriate. I think it is always preferable for the industry to try and find way to address technical issues like interoperability through their own standard-setting without the government mandating a particular standard. However, this issue is too critical to allow for that to go unresolved over an extended period of time,” Martin stated. “So at some point, if there is an inability to reach a common interoperability standard, I think it would be appropriate . for the government to go in and say ‘We will mandate one because the industries weren’t able to come together on their own.'”
Commissioner Michael Copps, one of the two Democrats on the Republican-controlled FCC, went even further.
“I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. . My only addition to that would be is it’s been five years since 9/11 and we still don’t have interoperability. We have a lot of public sector-private dialogue and talk about voluntary guideline and voluntary standards. . Getting this done is a top priority,” said Copps.
Adelstein, the other FCC Democrat, agreed.
But in the time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the monster hurricanes four years later, technology has moved forward even as lawmakers, pubic safety and industry stakeholders debate policy solutions for public safety communications woes.
CoCo Communications Inc., Twisted Pair Solutions Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. are among the companies boasting software and Internet protocol-based solutions for public safety radio interoperability. Meantime, the FCC is evaluating various plans intended to best leverage 24 megahertz of spectrum at 700 MHz being handed over by TV broadcasters to public safety.
No that long ago interoperability was closely tied to the equally politically-charged issue of securing additional public safety spectrum to support high-speed, data-intensive broadband applications. However, there appears to be growing separation between public safety spectrum and interoperability issues.
The technical fixes designed to tie together radios on different frequencies and with different air-interfaces have major implications on a number of levels. First, it tends to undercut any argument that more public safety spectrum is required to solve the interoperability crisis in the United States. Second, it potentially impacts the dynamics of multibillion dollar federal grant programs for interoperable public safety communications. Third, it would seem to pit a company like Cisco-a heavyweight in the Internet space-against public safety radio kingpin Motorola Inc. With relatively inexpensive software and IP-based solutions, cities and states may not have to rip out imbedded radio systems and by new ones.
New interoperability technology, increased federal funding for first responder interoperability and the eventual release of 700 MHz first responder communications rules likely will shape a public-safety wireless market that is undergoing a transformation of sorts. At stake: a pot of gold and new generation of winners and losers.
Maybe that’s why Motorola targeted Cisco in reply comments on the FCC’s 700 MHz public safety rulemaking and why Cisco did the same to Motorola in the same proceeding.
“Cisco Systems Inc.’s contention that ‘wideband networks are not being developed’ is false. Indeed, Motorola and other manufactures are committed to making both wideband and broadband technologies available for public safety users,” Motorola said.
Motorola said it and others oppose the FCC’s suggestion that cognitive radios and various techniques can be used for secondary broadband access to narrowband spectrum, noting the Spectrum Coalition for Public Safety’s view that cognitive radios may not be suited for mission-critical voice communications.
With that preface, Motorola again launched into Cisco. “In the face of this broad consensus, Cisco Systems nevertheless suggests that secondary broadband use would be ‘good public policy.’ But Cisco fails to explain how broadband services could successfully operate on the narrowband spectrum without causing interference,” Motorola told the FCC. “Moreover, Cisco does not seem to grasp the importance of narrowband voice communications for the public community. Given that Cisco’s comments stand inapposite to the rest of the commenters’ conclusions, the commission would be wise to discount Cisco’s ideas about what constitutes good public policy.”
Cisco, which recommended half of the 24 megahertz be set aside for a single national public safety network licensee and that first responders have the flexibility to use the other half for broadband deployment as well, said there is no longer support for traditional public safety models to achieve the wide-spread, high-grade quality interoperable communications needed for homeland security. In making its case, Cisco singled out Motorola.
“Broadband networks offer greater functionality at about the same cost as wideband systems,” stated Cisco in reply comments to the FCC. “Motorola asserts that 4-5 times as many cell sites are required to build a broadband system as a wideband one. This is not the case,” Cisco stated. “The infrastructure needed to support a TIA-902 wideband network built to achieve its highest data throughput rate and an 802.16e broadband network built to achieve its minimum data throughput rate are roughly equivalent-but the broadband network would offer speeds at least as fast as those of wideband.”