https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
  • 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
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • Microwave/RF
    • T&D World
    • 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
  • 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
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • 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

Policy


In search of Jack Bauer

In search of Jack Bauer

The International Wireless Communications Expo, or IWCE, has a long history of outstanding keynote speakers, and this year's conference and trade show,
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 1st March 2009

The International Wireless Communications Expo, or IWCE, has a long history of outstanding keynote speakers, and this year’s conference and trade show, which will be held March 16-20 in Las Vegas, is no exception. I spoke with this year’s keynote speaker — Steve Zipperstein, vice president of legal affairs and general counsel for Verizon Wireless — to get his thoughts on the relationship between commercial operators and the public-safety-communications sector.

I understand that you have a unique background that makes you ideally suited to be this year’s keynote speaker.

I served for 10 years in the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, which covers an area populated by 18 million people. It’s almost all of Southern California, except for the border area stretching from San Diego through the Imperial Valley. I also worked for a year and a half in Washington, D.C., for the criminal division of the Justice Department and eventually worked for [then-Attorney General] Janet Reno. So I have a lot of experience dealing with the same issues that our country faces today in the public-safety area.

How have those experiences shaped your perspectives regarding how wireless networks, particularly those of a commercial carrier, relate to public-safety communications and the challenges you just hinted at?

We encountered numerous situations where it was vitally important for the land-mobile-radio systems used by local, state and federal law enforcement officers to work in a flawless way and in an interoperable way. One example is the effort to secure the border between California and Mexico. It was always a challenge, partly because radio communications in the hilly terrain on the California side of the border were very difficult. I saw first-hand how critical it is for our first responders to have the benefit of a world-class radio network.

Mission-critical voice traditionally has been the focus in public safety, but now some believe mission-critical data has become as important — and some believe more important. What are your thoughts concerning the development of a robust broadband data infrastructure for first responders?

It’s vitally important in a post-9/11 world that we provide first responders with the communications tools — including state-of-the-art voice and state-of-the-art advanced data services — so that they can not only just talk to each other during critical incidents but provide other key information to each other, such as streaming video, e-mail and text messages and diagrams of buildings where terrorists might be holding hostages. In some respects, I’m talking about the things Jack Bauer [of the TV drama 24] has available to him on his PDA. With 4G technology, these kinds of futuristic applications can become reality for our front-line first responders. We’ve been partners with public safety for a long time — GPS location is just one example — and with the advent of 4G, the commercial wireless sector is in a position to expand that relationship.

Speaking of 4G, Verizon opted for long-term evolution (LTE) over WiMAX. Why?

How I’d like to answer that question is to say that the important thing to recognize is that both are 4G technologies, and both offer very high-speed data services to first responders. But at the end of the day, [what’s] most important is that first responders are able to control their own destinies by selecting the technologies that are best for them. In some jurisdictions, first responders might find LTE more advantageous, and in others, WiMAX — or some other technology or standard that hasn’t been invented yet.

I’m very excited about the future, because with both LTE and WiMAX out there as alternative choices offering advanced data services for first responders, public-safety agencies will be in a great position to drive their own fate and determine their own choices, and to select those products, services and network technologies that work best for their particular needs.

How do you see a commercial operator fitting into the public/private partnership model for the proposed 700 MHz nationwide broadband network for public safety?

Public safety already has 10 MHz of broadband spectrum in the band. Many of us have been advocating that the [10 MHz] of commercial D Block spectrum should be re-allocated to public safety. So public safety has spectrum and hopefully will be getting more spectrum, because it needs it. But what public safety doesn’t have is the network on which to use that spectrum. There are four national operators — Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel — and a whole host of regional operators. So the basis on which a partnership relationship is to occur is to marry public safety’s spectrum with the already built commercial wireless networks, so that we can make our networks available for them to use exclusively on their spectrum.

What are the advantages to this approach?

First, it will save an enormous amount of money. Constructing a brand-new network for public safety from the ground up has been estimated by some commentators to cost upwards of $60 billion. Why build a brand-new network when there are four national networks already in the ground and a host of regional networks? The second advantage to this approach is that it saves time. Building a brand-new network will be a multiyear endeavor. Why spend all that time to build something that already is in existence? Of course, public safety would like certain enhancements made to the commercial networks — such as backup power at all sites — but I am certain that the commercial sector, if given the opportunity, would rise to the occasion.

The FCC last year proposed relaxing the requirements to which successful bidders for the commercial spectrum — the so-called D Block — would need to adhere. Did that proposal go far enough?

No matter how much the rules are watered down — and watering them down does not help public safety, by the way — it’s very, very unlikely that a private-sector investor would view the D Block as an investment that would create a return on the investment capital over a short, medium or even a long term. Our view is that concept was tried, it didn’t work, and watering it down isn’t going to help public safety. That’s why many are advocating that rather than trying to force an unnatural partnership by auctioning the D Block, instead the D Block should be given to public safety. Then, public safety should select through an RFP process the commercial partner or partners that can best serve them in a particular jurisdiction. What might work best for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department might not be what’s best for the NYPD.

But won’t that create a “haves versus have-nots” scenario that would leave smaller, less-funded agencies out in the cold?

The lack of funding needs to be taken into consideration. Just as we do when we build a new defense system or procure a new aircraft carrier, we need to recognize that creating a nationwide, interoperable high-speed public-safety communications network is tantamount to a national-security imperative. It should be viewed on the same level of importance to this country as is the procurement of a new weapons system. Therefore, it should be funded by the taxpayers, but the money should be given directly to public safety, not to the industry, so that public safety, through an RFP process — or whatever works for them — can select the partner or partners that best meet their needs.

So this becomes a massive public-works project on the level of the interstate highway system?

Except that most of the highway system is already built. In fact, we already have four [national] systems and a host of regional systems, so there wouldn’t be the same ground-up investment and the same time-lag to completion. That’s the beauty of the public/private partnership that is evolving as I have described it here.

But wouldn’t a network cobbled together from myriad commercial operators be unwieldy compared with the original concept for this network, which was for public safety to work with a single operator?

Ten years ago, that would have been a very, very valid point and a very fair point. But technology has advanced to the point today where there are air interfaces, voice-over-Internet-protocol solutions and other software solutions available today that enable agencies in different places to talk to each other, even if their systems are served over different networks or by different providers — even if they’re using different standards. I think that technology has advanced to the point where we can solve this problem today if we have the will to do it — and if we’re willing to break the mold and not force a 20th-century solution onto a 21st-century problem.

IWCE 2009 AT A GLANCE

What: International Wireless Communications Expo

Where: Las Vegas Convention Center

College of Technology: March 16-17

Exhibits and Conference: March 18-20

Keynote Address: March 18, 8:30-10 a.m., Steve Zipperstein, vice president of legal affairs and general counsel, Verizon Wireless

Lunchtime Address: March 18, 12:30-1:15 p.m., Chris Hackett, vice president of business and government solutions, Sprint Nextel

Conference Tracks: Mobile voice and data communications; infrastructure, networks and systems; interoperability; regulatory and legislative update; and emerging technologies

General Workshop: March 18, 1:30-5 p.m., TETRA in the U.S.

Dealers Workshop: March 18, 12:30-2:30 p.m., New technologies for dealers

Networking Reception: March 18, 6-8 p.m., Las Vegas Hilton

General Session: March 19, 8:30-10 a.m., Point-counterpoint: IP for mission-critical communications — what works and what doesn’t?

General Session: 11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m., IEEE’s Wireless Communications Engineering Technologies (WCET) certification program

Exhibitors List: www.iwceexpo.com

Tags: Policy

Most Recent


  • Partnership launches no-cost wastewater monitoring service for local governments
    Of all the important lessons cities and counties have learned since the pandemic began, high up on the list is the value of working together. No one community can solve cross-jurisdictional challenges alone—that’s a concept that’s at the heart of a new initiative launched by the National League of Cities (NLC) and WastewaterSCAN that brings no-cost wastewater monitoring […]
  • Research claims driverless tech still too easy to trick
    Autonomous vehicles can be easily manipulated into performing undesirable driving behavior through the placement of ordinary objects on the roadside, according to a study from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The research team set up a course on the UCLA campus to test the reactions of driverless cars, running the open-source AD systems Apollo […]
  • Coalition expresses urgent need for NG911 funding, wants more than proposed $10 billion
    ANAHEIM—Public Safety NG911 Coalition representatives expressed support for legislation that calls for as much as $10 billion in spectrum-auctions proceeds to be used to fund the transition to next-generation 911 technology, but they want the money to be available soon and believe more than $10 billion is necessary. These statements were made yesterday during a […]
  • APCO releases NG911 guide, quickly clarifies stance on NENA's i3 standard
    ANAHEIM—At its annual trade show, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) yesterday announced the release of its “Definitive Guide to Next-Generation 911” and, hours later, issued a press release to clarify its position on the i3 standard developed by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). APCO International Executive Director and CEO Derek Poarch announced […]

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

  • New Orleans-area 911 center inks multiyear APEX deal with Carbyne to replace call-handling system
  • In search of Jack Bauer
    Newscan: Feds recover millions from pipeline ransom hackers, hint at U.S. Internet tactic
  • Cyber is the new Cold War, and AI is the arms race
  • Private wireless networks in the US start going public

Commentary


LTE and liability: Why the fire service must move forward with digital incident command

  • 2
6th May 2022

Partnership and collaboration must be the foundation for emergency communications

18th April 2022

FirstNet success means no hypothetical ‘shots’ need to be fired, Swenson says

22nd February 2022
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Cisco confirms data breach, hacked files leaked dlvr.it/SWV8l9

12th August 2022
UrgentComm

Researchers developing health-monitoring e-tattoo dlvr.it/SWV749

12th August 2022
UrgentComm

Partnership launches no-cost wastewater monitoring service for local governments dlvr.it/SWV5PK

12th August 2022
UrgentComm

Verizon Frontline demos connectivity and emergency response to chemical spill drill dlvr.it/SWV4cg

12th August 2022
UrgentComm

Research claims driverless tech still too easy to trick dlvr.it/SWMDts

10th August 2022
UrgentComm

Coalition expresses urgent need to NG911 funding, wants more than proposed $10 billion dlvr.it/SWL5VW

9th August 2022
UrgentComm

APCO releases NG911 guide, quickly clarifies stance on NENA’s i3 standard dlvr.it/SWKcCY

9th August 2022
UrgentComm

10 malicious code packages slither into PyPI registry dlvr.it/SWKHxl

9th August 2022

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”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 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.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X