PSST endorses LTE for 700 MHz network
The Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), the nationwide licensee for public-safety broadband spectrum at 700 MHz, last week endorsed Long Term Evolution (LTE) as the preferred technology standard for a proposed nationwide wireless broadband network in the band.
During the past two months, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officers (APCO), the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) also endorsed LTE as the preferred technology for a 700 MHz broadband network for public safety.
“It seemed logical,” PSST Chairman Harlin McEwen said. “Once APCO, NENA and NPSTC basically decided that was the preferred technology, the PSST discussed it and agreed that was what we should do.”
A primary goal of the PSST is to ensure that a national network can be accessed by public safety using affordable devices, McEwen said. It appears that LTE is the technology that is best positioned to deliver on this promise, he said.
“By choosing this technology, we believe we will be taking advantage of what we believe are the economies of scale of devices that are developed by big companies like Verizon and AT&T and U.S. Cellular — all three of them have announced LTE as their preferred technology,” McEwen said.
Although none of those three commercial carriers have indicated they would ask manufacturers to build 700 MHz devices that also would be able to operate on the public-safety broadband spectrum, McEwen said he is hopeful that the LTE endorsements from public safety would “encourage” the carriers to make such requests.
In addition to LTE, WiMAX is the other technology most often mentioned in 700 MHz discussions. However, no WiMAX carriers have indicated that they are planning to build networks at 700 MHz, McEwen said.
Related Stories