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

Urgent Matters


Commentary

Don’t blink, or you may miss another step in the development of LTE

Don’t blink, or you may miss another step in the development of LTE

Solutions on display this week at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) show provide a hint at the fast-paced development cycles associated with the LTE broadband standard being used in the FIrstNet network.
  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 22nd August 2013

 

ANAHEIM, Calif.—LTE — the fourth-generation wireless standard that will be used in the nationwide broadband network for first responders in the U.S. — stands for “Long Term Evolution,” a name inspired by the idea that the technology will allow network operators that use it to upgrade their networks without having to forklift their infrastructure.

For commercial carriers that historically have had to replace gear throughout their network to move from one generation of wireless technology to the next generation, the concept of being able to migrate to next-generation technology without scrap investments in network equipment is a huge relief, according to wireless-industry sources. In fact, some have estimated that the cost to upgrade an LTE cell site will be about 10% of the cost to perform the kind of forklift upgrades associated with previous commercial-wireless technologies.

For any operator—whether it is commercial carrier like AT&T or Verizon, or FirstNet, which is charged with building a nationwide broadband network for public safety—a 90% savings per cell site is massive. It’s one of the reasons why public safety and policymakers made such a wise choice in selecting LTE as the broadband standard to serve first responders

(An aside: FirstNet may have its issues today and almost assuredly will face future bumps in the road, but can imagine the mess public safety would be in today if it had pursued wideband technology on this 700 MHz spectrum, which was the plan just 7 years ago?)

Of course, the natural instinct is to presume that cost savings associated with upgrades to a new generation of technology will be at least a decade— after all, isn’t 4G LTE is brand new and not even fully deployed by carriers?

Wrong.

LTE is not a typical public-safety communications standard like P25 that takes decades to gain traction. It is commercial standard with ridiculous economies of scale that already is advancing at warp speed.

In less than three years, both AT&T and Verizon have gone from no LTE coverage in their respective networks to nationwide LTE service — milestones announced this summer that were reached six months ahead of the carriers’ initial schedules. And 5G is just around the corner.

In a story from the Times of India, 5G standards are expected to be ready in 2015—about the time that FirstNet is expected to be deploying its network in earnest—and will include attributes designed to make machine-to-machine communications more effective and affordable, according to Wen Tong, head of the 5G mission at China-based Huawei Technologies. Products needed to make 5G a reality should be available for rollouts 2020, he said.

“The industry will be 5G ready by 2020,” Tong said in the article. “The idea is to increase the throughput by 1,000 times with 1,000 times more spectrum and 1,000 times reduced energy.”

Meanwhile, Samsung is testing its version of a 5G wireless network that reportedly topped 1.0 GB/s throughput speeds at a distance of up to 2 kilometers.

Whether either of these examples really is a 5G network is unknown — after all, the standard has not been created, and test information has been misinterpreted by the media on more than one occasion — but it really does not matter. What is significant is the fact that U.S. public safety’s choice of LTE appears to be a wise one, as the research, upgrades and new features in the technology seem to be coming faster than most first-responder officials probably ever imagined.

It’s hard to believe that it was only three years ago when some public-safety officials still classified LTE as “vaporware,” because no significant LTE deployments had been completed in the U.S. As LTE began being rolled out, many noted that the coverage was spotty and that early versions of LTE were data-only standards that did not support voice calls.

Today, both Verizon and AT&T provide nationwide LTE coverage, and the networks are expected to support commercial voice by the end of this year or early next year. Meanwhile, both carriers already have push-to-talk offerings over LTE.

They are not the only ones. This week on the APCO show floor—an exhibit hall loaded with LTE technology that operate on Band 14 700 MHz spectrum, even though there are only one operational network on those airwaves today—there were multiple demonstrations of products and applications that enable push-to-talk services and group calls over LTE that also integrate with LMR networks.

No one is claiming that these push-to-talk offering meet public safety’s mission-critical needs today, which is why LMR will remain the primary staple for first-responder communications for some time. None of these solutions have been standardized, and any application is only reliable as the network it rides over. If FirstNet delivers on the promise of delivering a mission-critical LTE network, that would be a huge step in the right direction.

Of course, no network is completely bulletproof, and there will times when first responders will not be in range of a functioning LTE cell site, particularly in the aftermath of a disaster that wipes out network infrastructure.

One of the biggest knocks against LTE is that it supposedly requires a signal to the core network to work, and first responders require the ability to communicate even when network infrastructure is not available. Based on the gear I saw on the APCO show floor, vendors are eager to address this issue.

There were numerous examples of deployable solutions leveraging a variety of backhaul options and small-core architectures. In addition, there was even a wearable vest being used by the military that enables peer-to-peer communications—think “talkaround” or “direct mode,” in LMR terms. Honestly, I thought it would be years before such products would be on the market that public safety could afford.

Again, there is still a long way to go, and there are plenty of challenges ahead. But the technology we’re talking about an ecosystem of engineering and financing that has seen LTE transition from non-existent to nationwide—and from no voice to both commercial voice and push-to-talk offerings—in less than three years (the time it takes many government entities to get an LMR system planned and approved) and already has made significant efforts already on the 5G front.

If public-safety-grade voice over LTE is deemed to be a global priority—and there are indications that could happen—it would be hard to bet against this ecosystem eventually developing a solution.

Even if this lofty goal is never achieved, it is important that public safety and FirstNet acknowledge the progress that the LTE industry has made during the past few years. Developing governance and business models that embrace, leverage and adapt to this fast-changing marketplace is critical to ensuring first-responder communications on this much-anticipated network get to use the best technology available at all times.

 

 

 

 

Tags: Public Safety APCO Commentary Long Term Evolution (LTE) NTIA/FirstNet Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet Urgent Matters Commentary

Most Recent


  • Panel at SBC event examines significant economic, policy challenges facing in-building communications
    Ensuring that public safety can communicate while responding to emergencies inside buildings is a clear need, but identifying the proper solutions and making them affordable to building owners is a significant challenge, according to panelists exploring the topic during a recent Safer Buildings Coalition (SBC) event. Mike Baltrotsky, assistant chief and technology manager for Montgomery […]
  • Indoor 5G and how to solve it
    We all know the problem: mobile phone service is working fine … until you move indoors. Then, sometimes it works (you don’t notice), sometimes it sort of works (meh) and sometimes it clings on by one tiny bar or drops out entirely (argh). Diagnosing the problem is relatively simple. The loss of mobile service indoors […]
  • Small-cell focus still largely on densification, but private-network opportunity growing
    Some big ambitions for small cells were on display during the annual Small Cell World Summit in London this week. But it’s worth remembering that on the ground, their deployment is still at a relatively early stage. Dean Bubley of Disruptive Analysis, who chaired a panel addressing the issues of value creation and monetization, summarized […]
  • How to leverage digital tools to drive innovation in government
    The rapid evolution of digital technologies transformed the way governments function, making them more efficient, transparent and citizen-friendly. Rather than relying on crystal trophies, governments can leverage digital tools to drive innovation and streamline processes, benefiting the population they serve. Open data and crowdsourcing Open data refers to making government data available to the public, […]

Related Content

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


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.