https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Call Center/Command


Selling public safety on broadband network might be tougher than expected

Selling public safety on broadband network might be tougher than expected

ORLANDO--There is little question that the proposed nationwide public safety wireless broadband network for first responders will deliver capabilities—by leveraging next-generation commercial technologies—to first responders in the field that previously were the stuff of fantasy. However, based on the discussion today at the IWCE-MRT Wireless Summit, proponents of the network will have some work to do to convince first responders those capabilities not only are needed but also worth the monthly user fees they’ll have to pay to access the network
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 13th November 2007

ORLANDO–There is little question that the proposed nationwide public safety wireless broadband network for first responders will deliver capabilities—by leveraging next-generation commercial technologies—to first responders in the field that previously were the stuff of fantasy. However, based on the discussion today at the IWCE-MRT Wireless Summit, proponents of the network will have some work to do to convince first responders those capabilities not only are needed but also worth the monthly user fees they’ll have to pay to access the network.

While data and voice have a place in public-safety communications, “in the public-safety world, still today, voice two-way radio is king,” said Ben Holycross, radio systems manager for Polk County, Fla., who participated on a panel today with Morgan O’Brien, chairman and CEO of Cyren Call Communications, the agent/advisor to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST). The PSST is expected to be named soon as the public-safety licensee that will work with the winner of the 700 MHz D Block auction to build the network to public-safety specifications.

“The whole purpose of the 700 MHz spectrum, going back to the beginning, was for additional voice capability. We’ve lost that thrust,” Holycross said. “A police officer on the street at 3 a.m. who’s trying to take down an armed robber doesn’t have time to open up a data file. He needs a dispatcher who can tell him, on a clear voice channel, that the subject is armed and dangerous.”

One attendee, a firefighter with 18 years of experience, in addition to 20 years as a communications technician, echoed Holycross and suggested it is unrealistic to think a firefighter would use the video and data capabilities anticipated for the network.

“I have to be out of bed and on the truck in one minute, I have to reach the furthest point of my response district in five minutes, and I have to enter the structure upon arrival in one minute,” he said. “I don’t have the time for video, I don’t have time for data transmission, and I can’t think of a situation as a responding firefighter where I’d use that. … Mission-critical voice is the only thing that drives what we do to make our mission successful.”

Holycross agreed, to a degree. “[Transmitting] video of an incident in process to a responding officer is probably going to get him into a car wreck,” he said. “That’s a real risk. We’ve run into that ever since they first started to put laptop computers in police cars, and before that, mobile data terminals.”

But he later acknowledged that the ability to download building blueprints and floor plans to an incident commander would be quite useful in terms of improving directions to firefighters who have entered the structure. In addition, biometric sensors that monitor vital signs could alert commanders to the need to get a firefighter out of the structure well before he or she succumbs to heat-related maladies.

Another major question on the minds of public-safety communications officials concerns the network’s as-yet-to-be-defined economic model. As Holycross pointed out, the commercial entity that will build the network will have a fiduciary responsibility to its investors to generate a sufficient return on investment, which could result in monthly user fees that are impractical for many agencies.

“We need to determine how this is going to be funded and how it’s going to be maintained an operated,” he said.

Cyren Call fully understands the importance of educating the first-responder community, even at this early stage, O’Brien said. “It would be a terrible irony if we were to go through this whole process and we end up with a system that … large numbers of public-safety agencies don’t want to subscribe to.”

Also important is finding a balance between public safety’s needs and those of the commercial entity that will build the network.

“You can imagine a system built to such a high standard that it can’t be financed. And you can imagine a system that is built so close to the current commercial [networks] that it wouldn’t work for public safety,” O’Brien said. “So you have to imagine a system that is somewhere in between. And that will be a process of negotiation.”

The dickering already has begun. The PSST and Cyren Call has had in-depth discussions with all of the potential D Block bidders—“some of them are obvious and some of them are not so obvious”—and expects to issue a document in the next couple of days that will contain public safety’s preferred requirements for the network, O’Brien said.

Though he believes it is impossible to underestimate the importance of the negotiations, calling them the “guts of the job,” O’Brien also thinks a consensus will be reached, because of what’s at stake.

“If no successful outcome is reached, the D Block winner doesn’t get that license. That puts tremendous pressure on the D Block winner to be reasonable and come to terms with public safety,” he said. “And if we don’t do a good job on the PSST and Cyren Call side of listening to the requirements of public safety and negotiating well with our partner … public safety won’t embrace and adopt the network.”

Tags: Call Center/Command content Wireless Networks

Most Recent


  • How AT&T won DFW Airport's $10 million private 5G business
    According to Mike Youngs, it all started with the bathrooms at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport. Youngs, the airport’s VP for IT, wanted to use wireless technology to reduce crowding in restroom lines during the COVID-19 pandemic. His team installed sensors and lights above stalls and monitors outside restrooms to let people know when […]
  • Russia's war in Ukraine shows cyberattacks can be war crimes
    Russia’s cyberattacks against Ukrainian civilian and critical infrastructure has shown what it looks like when cyberattacks are part of warfare. What remains to be seen is whether the world will treat them as war crimes. “For too long, the world has been considering cyber terrorism as something unrealistic, too sci-fi-ish, and cyber weapons as not […]
  • FCC grants 700 MHz Band 14 license renewal to FirstNet Authority
    An FCC bureau yesterday renewed the FirstNet Authority’s spectrum license into at least 2027, allowing the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) to continue operating over the 700 MHz Band 14 airwaves—a key component of the FirstNet Authority’s 25-year agreement with contractor AT&T. Approved by the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB), the license […]
  • How vehicle insurance and autonomy intertwined
    In early 2023 Oxbotica claimed at an event, which was held at Lloyd’s of London about the Future of Autonomy that insurance and autonomy are intertwined. At the event, Sam Tiltman, sharing economy and mobility leader for the UK & Ireland at Marsh, claimed that the combined impact of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), electric vehicles and automation is huge. […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Is an attacker living off your land?
  • New ThroughTek IoT supply-chain vulnerability announced
  • What “smart city” means for 2021: How digital twins, AI and other innovations drive smart transformation
  • Required MFA is not sufficient for strong security: Report

Commentary


Updated: How ‘sidelink’ peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations

  • 1
27th February 2023

NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation

24th February 2023

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

How AT&T won DFW Airport’s $10 million private 5G business dlvr.it/Spj4Pt

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

Russia’s war in Ukraine shows cyberattacks can be war crimes dlvr.it/Spj3c2

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

FCC grants 700 MHz Band 14 license renewal to FirstNet Authority dlvr.it/Spj2Ny

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

Broadband for Critical Communications Everywhere Providing Connectivity When Seconds Count dlvr.it/Sph602

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

How vehicle insurance and autonomy intertwined dlvr.it/SpglBb

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

World’s least-expensive self-driving vehicle revealed dlvr.it/Spgc88

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

Voice calling is finally making its way onto 5G dlvr.it/SpdtYW

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

With many cities facing a fiscal cliff as ARPA funding ends, debt ceiling debate continues on Capitol Hill dlvr.it/Spdsnq

26th May 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.