Public-safety impact

Of course, cellular technology no longer is exclusively of interest to commercial carriers, as the Federal Communications Commission and the public-safety sector have agreed that Long-Term Evolution will be the technology deployed in the proposed 700 MHz wireless broadband networks for first responders nationwide.

Exactly how lightRadio could alter first-responder deployment of LTE is difficult to project, because “the challenge is that public safety really doesn’t understand LTE at this point,” said Morgan Wright, vice president of Alcatel-Lucent’s public-safety segment. However, Wright said that he believes the efficiencies of the lightRadio solution will appeal to government agencies, many of which are facing significant budget concerns.

“You don’t have to build all these towers; you don’t have to build all these huts and have all these things running to these huts. Let’s focus on your mission and what you need to do,” Wright said. “And the minute I can start hoteling 20 to 25 towers in a single location, look at how my expenses go down, because I only need one person to go to one place to do servicing.”

This approach also could improve network reliability, which long has been one of public safety’s concerns about leveraging commercial networks.

“It’s going to cost me less money to supply even more power, because I’m aggregating my spend with other people’s spend,” Wright said. “So, you’re probably going to get a facility that’s going to be better, more hardened, have better power efficiency and everything else. Overall, my aggregate spending is going to drop, because I get to pool my money with other like-minded people and pay for a better class of service.

“We just have to convince them that not having the tower is not a bad thing — it’s a good thing. What you really need to focus on is the fact that it still delivers what you need to the first responder. That experience for them is not going to change.”