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Commentary Newsletters


Businesses scramble to include public-safety in-building communications

Businesses scramble to include public-safety in-building communications

Many jurisdictions are adopting in-building coverage requirements that include those spelled out by the National Fire Prevention Act, which gives a national framework for individual jurisdictions to follow.
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 5th August 2009

Ever since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the need for in-building public-safety communications coverage has been identified as a critical need. One of the biggest problems facing the public-safety community is the lack of coverage deep inside a building that can cost a first responder precious minutes.

Today, many jurisdictions are adopting coverage requirements that include those spelled out by the National Fire Prevention Act of 2009, which gives a national framework for individual jurisdictions to follow. Most jurisdictions now are requiring that first responders have communications coverage everywhere in a building — or at least 95% of it — said Rick Swiers, vice president of business development with TriPower, a system integrator for multicarrier Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS).

“Basically, any building that is three stories or greater, that has underground elements or parking, and a tunnel between buildings has to have coverage in those areas,” Swiers said.

As such, TriPower is seeing a deluge of business as enterprises look to comply with the new codes. According to Swiers, some 150 cities have enacted this stricter code. The city of Las Vegas, for instance, is particularly aggressive, and casinos are scrambling to comply, Swiers said. Moreover, he believes hospitals and hotels in other cities will be the first targets of these stricter coverage requirements because of their high density of occupants.

“We hear stories all the time. I doubt we go a week without hearing how some first responder couldn’t perform his duty,” Swiers said. “A person gets injured in the basement of the building, a first responder goes down to help the person, but his radio doesn’t work.”

The task of providing coverage, however, is complicated given the myriad of frequencies public-safety agencies operate on. A fire department may be operating on a VHF network, while the police department operates on an 800 MHz digital system. But that’s where DAS comes in. Increasingly, the DAS not only includes support for cellular frequencies for an enterprise’s own communications need but support for the multiple frequencies and technologies used by public safety.

In TriPower’s case, the system integrator unveiled earlier this year a multi-carrier DAS manufactured by South Korea — based SOLiD Technologies. The system supports frequencies from 100 MHz — including support for VHF and UHF two-way systems, cellular and paging systems — to 2.5 GHz across one fiber backbone and also includes support for the 700 MHz band, which public safety will use in the future. In addition, WiMAX and LTE can be added as slip-in module.

“We have to be able to anticipate when businesses need to add different functionality, so part of our job is talking to the municipality and getting an idea of whether they are going to 700 MHz or not,” Swiers said.

What do you think? Tell us in the comment box below.

Tags: Commentary Newsletters Mobile Voice Commentary Networks & Systems Commentary

Most Recent


  • Updated: How 'sidelink' peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations
    Editor’s note: A previous version of this column was posted that included only the first portion of the article—a mistake by the editor. IWCE’s Urgent Communications regrets the error and apologizes for any inconvenience. When first responders are called to action, they need reliable communications to coordinate an effective public-safety response. Public-safety personnel understand this […]
  • NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation
    As the new Congress begins its work in earnest, we look forward to continued progress in funding the transition to IP-based next-generation 911 (NG911) technology. Our nation’s 911 systems are critical to ensuring the safety and security of our communities, and nationwide implementation of NG911 will ensure these systems can leverage the most advanced communications […]
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    It’s a scenario we’ve all experienced: an ambulance with a blaring siren racing against time to get a person in medical distress to a hospital through traffic. What we don’t see is 5G connectivity enabling paramedics to communicate with hospital staff via video conference and coordinate care in real-time before arriving at the emergency room. […]
  • 3GPP moves Release 18 freeze date to March 2024
    The latest set of 3GPP Plenary electronic meetings (e-meetings) concluded on Dec. 19, 2022. The meetings focused on the Release 18 (R18) feature progress and schedule. It was decided to extend the R18 freeze date (specifications complete for all R18 features) by three months to March 2024 to ensure the quality of the R18 3GPP […]

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