Cover story

Triumph rises from tragedy

An Urgent Communications staff report

Sept. 11, 2001, will be remembered forevermore as one of the darkest days in U.S. history, when terrorists launched a well-orchestrated attack that killed nearly 3,000 civilians, first responders and military personnel. It also will be identified as the watershed event that forced public safety to take a hard look at its communications capabilities and make substantial improvements to them, a journey that ultimately may lead to the Promised Land: a nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to first responders....

First Word

A roller coaster of emotions

By Glenn Bischoff (glenn.bischoff@penton.com)

Without question, Sept. 11, 2001, will be remembered forevermore as one of the darkest days in our country's history. It is exceedingly difficult to find a silver lining in an event that caused nearly 3,000 Americans to lose their lives. But if there is one, it is that public-safety communications are far better today — and promise to be even better in the future....

Features

Shaking things up

By Larry Payne

A California city on a major fault line implements a wireless bridging network to ensure continuity of operations should an earthquake strike....

Reel them in

By Jesse Crowe

As location-based services technology continues to evolve, retailers are developing much deeper — and ultimately far more profitable — relationships with their customers....

View from the Top

Thank you for your contributions

By Robert H. Schwaninger Jr.

What is remarkable about the NALs is that they are for myriad violations. It used to be that the FCC would get serious about a particular issue, for example tower lighting, and would issue a host of NALs for that rule violation. Now, the FCC is looking at various areas for enforcement and is issuing NALs whenever and wherever evil is found....

Final Word

Small quake is big enough

By Alan Tilles

Yes, we know the recent East Coast earthquake wasn't as big as some of the ones they get out west. However, it was big enough to illustrate out the problems that occur when one relies on public networks in an emergency, as well as the need for a public-safety broadband infrastructure....

Dispatches

Experts: Cybersecurity is becoming a bigger problem for mission-critical entities

By Glenn Bischoff

Today’s IP-based systems are “exponentially” increasing the opportunities for hackers, because there are many more breach points, L.R. Kimball's J. Kevin McGeary said....

FCC bureau chief: Don’t count on narrowbanding waivers

By Glenn Bischoff

David Furth cautioned operators of land-mobile-radio (LMR) systems operating at 512 MHz and below that the commission’s Jan. 1, 2013, deadline for narrowbanding those systems isn’t going to change. ...

LightSquared: GPS industry should improve filtering

By Donny Jackson (donald.jackson@penton.com)

Failure by GPS manufacturers to utilize recommended filtering techniques is the primary reason for the industry having such significant interference projections with LightSquared’s planned terrestrial LTE network that would utilize nearby spectrum, according to a recent LightSquared filing with the FCC....

FCC approves 911 location-accuracy order

By Donny Jackson

Under the new rules, all wireless carriers would be required to meet the more stringent GPS-based E-911 location-accuracy requirements by 2019. ...

Google buys Motorola Mobility

By Donny Jackson (donald.jackson@penton.com)

Google CEO Larry Page said Motorola Mobility will continue to operate as a separate business unit and emphasized that the Android business strategy will remain intact after the merger....

LA-RICS to restart bidding for LTE, P25 projects

By Donny Jackson (donald.jackson@penton.com)

By opting to restart the process, LA-RICS may have difficulty building the proposed project. According to media reports, more than $260 million in federal grants are at stake. ...

Gear

Harris shows new radios, LTE device

By Donny Jackson

The XG-75 and the P5500 multimode radios are P25 Phase 2–capable via a software upgrade, while the MBC-100 mobile subscriber device will operate on public-safety LTE networks in the 700 MHz band. ...

EFJohnson launches new P25 system

By Donny Jackson (donald.jackson@penton.com) and Glenn Bischoff (glenn.bischoff@penton.com)

The ATLAS P25 system is an IP-based solution that leverages a distributed architecture and supports simulcast capability for both conventional and trunking systems....

Motorola unveils remote speaker microphone for firefighters

By Donny Jackson (donald.jackson@penton.com)

The APX XE features a large-but-protected emergency button, a prominent push-to-talk button and a sizeable volume switch....

Video: Cassidian demos LTE push-to-talk, devices and unified communications

By Glenn Bischoff (glenn.bischoff@penton.com)

Cassidian Communications is demonstrating the ability to deliver one-to-many and one-to-one push-to-talk communications using smartphones or tablet computers over an LTE network during the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials conference in Philadelphia this week. ...