Top 5 stories: Week of Sept. 21-25

Here’s a look at the most popular stories on  IWCE ’s Urgent Communications from last week.

1. “LA-RICS nears finish line on public safety LTE system deployment” –Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) planned to meet its Sept. 30 federal deadline for its much-anticipated public-safety LTE network deployment. As of last week, 50 of 63 permanent tower sites and 15 deployable sites at fixed locations were completed, according to LA-RICS spokesman Russ Stanton. LA-RICS is one of five early-builder projects, and the largest, expected to provide real-world insights for the FirstNet nationwide public-safety broadband network. LA-RICS officials plan to begin work on the P25 system deployment after the completion of the LTE system deployment, Staton said.
2. “Positive-train-control (PTC) requirements still undecided as end-of-year deadline looms” – Rail companies facing the Dec. 31, 2015, deadline to implement positive-train-control technology (PTC) are not prepared, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Federal lawmakers and the Obama administration agree that a five-year extension to the deadline would be fitting, and that proposal is included in the surface-transportation legislation passed by the Senate earlier this year. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) pledged to work on legislation to extend the PTC deadline. “I am committed to working with Senator Thune and our colleagues to address the clear need for an extension and to ensuring that railroads implement this important but complicated safety technology in a responsible manner,” Shuster said in a written statement.
3.  “Updated FirstNet Operational Architecture would make winning bidder responsible for most functions” – FirstNet’s winning partner would have ownership of more than 63% of the system functions, with public-safety entities primarily handling user-management issues regarding devices and applications, according to FirstNet’s updated Operational Architecture document released earlier this month. In the first version of the document, 615 functions were outlined. With input from public-safety officials, the updated document now outlines 647 functions, with public safety handling 33 functions, FirstNet overseeing 140 functions and the offerer managing 413 functions.
4. “Rockwell Collins announces plans to offer nationwide disaster communications via HF radio” – Rockwell Collins announced plans for a nationwide high-frequency radio network, ARINC UrgentLink, which is designed to provide communications between public-safety and critical infrastructure bodies when typical communication infrastructure is inoperable due to natural or man-made disaster.  Rockwell Collins has a pilot HF Radio network running at a large sheriff’s department currently, and the system will be available to other public-safety agencies within a year, said Dave Chapman, Rockwell Collins product manager.
5. “Chattanooga shootings exhibit the need for in-building wireless, text-to-911 services” – Alan Perdue, Safer Buildings Coalition executive director, explains the significance of the final text Lance Cpl. Squire Wells sent before he was murdered during the recent active shooting in Chattanooga, Tenn. Though that text went through to his girlfriend, many texts, limited by in-building coverage, do not make it to recipients during emergencies, Perdue says in his View From the Top commentary. “Lance Cpl. Wells did what millions of other people might do in an emergency. His text went through. Not all of them will, because the public-safety answering point (PSAP) cannot receive a 911 text or because there may not be indoor coverage in a particular location,” Perdue wrote.