PDV’s 900 MHz LMR-to-broadband proposal could be crossroads for critical-infrastructure comms

Making this proposition even more unlikely is the fact that the FCC is about to conclude a spectrum auction that will raise more than $44.7 billion, which is more than double the revenue generated by any other U.S. auction. Clearing broadband spectrum for auction is a very difficult process logistically and politically, and this huge payday for the federal government likely will increase lawmakers’ desire to maximize the revenue potential of future spectrum sales.

Given this, what utilities and critical-infrastructure entities need are viable broadband options—and sooner rather than later. Waiting two decades like public safety did is not a good choice, and there’s no guarantee that such an effort would result in access to the required spectrum after that period of time, anyway.

For the utility and critical-infrastructure community today, there are limited options to address broadband needs:

(1)     Subscribe to carrier services—The most expedient option, but carriers do not guarantee prioritization when capacity is a problem and typically do not physically harden their networks to utility standards. In addition, carriers may not provide cover to some of the remote areas with little or no population that transmission lines traverse.

(2)     Utilize unlicensed bands—A private network on unlicensed spectrum provide an entity a certain amount of control, but unlicensed airwaves do not provide the interference protection that is ideal, especially for mission-critical and business-critical communications.

(3)     Partner with FirstNet—This still remains a high-capacity option that should be considered, and it’s a notion that provides strategic and financial synergies to all parties involved. Unfortunately, there are still questions surrounding prioritization, FirstNet’s deployment timeline and how such an agreement would be structured.

A new alternative is a proposal by Pacific DataVision (PDV) to reconfigure its 900 MHz LMR spectrum holdings—recently purchased from Sprint—into a contiguous 3×3 MHz block that would enable PDV to provide prioritized broadband service (probably LTE, although the company has not made an announcement yet) to the utility and critical-infrastructure markets.

Reconfiguring a band is no easy task, and it is understandable that many approach the notion with some trepidation, given the difficulties that public-safety entities had with 800 MHz rebanding. However, many key members of the PDV staff participated in the 800 MHz rebanding process and liken the proposed 900 MHz reconfiguration to the rebanding of the 1-120 channels at 800 MHz, which was a much quicker and straightforward process than moving some of the public-safety systems.

In the ongoing FCC proceeding (reply comments are due on Jan. 27), initial commenters expressed interference concerns, particularly as they relate to combiners and to automated metering infrastructure (AMI) gear that have sensitive RF receivers. Last week, PDV officials outlined potential solutions to these issues during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications, but engineering work still must be done before those proposals are formalized.

There are a lot of details that need to be addressed, but they appear to be technically feasible. Incumbent users should take strong positions to ensure that their existing LMR systems are not harmed and that PDV assumes all costs for any work associated with reconfiguring the spectrum band.

If these technical issues are addressed and prioritization assured, utilities and critical-infrastructure entities should back the PDV proposal, because it would give them a path to broadband that they do not enjoy today. Even if these critical-infrastructure entities do not choose to subscribe to the PDV offering, the simple existence of a PDV offering would provide an important option and give critical-infrastructure groups additional leverage as they try to negotiate an agreement with FirstNet in future.