Changes in public-safety communications are happening quickly—and acceleration is likely in the forecast

Upon joining this publication—then known as Mobile Radio Technology magazine—in 2003, I was told that public-safety communications was relatively slow-moving industry, especially when compared with the telecommunications industry that had been the subject of my writing during the previous years.

There may have been some truth to that statement at the time, but it is not applicable today. Public-safety communications has evolved considerably over the past 12 years, and there is every indication that changes will occur even more rapidly during the next several years. Some of the notable signs of change:

• Just one year after the FCC mandated that wireless carriers provide text-to-911 services to public-safety answering points (PSAPs), close to 1,000 PSAPs can receive emergency text messages, and that number likely will more than double during the next year;
• Most of these text-ready PSAPs have initiated their migration path to next-generation 911, which features an all-IP architecture and the technical ability to receive data, image and video communications  from the public during times of emergencies;
• Consolidation efforts are happening or have been rumored throughout the industry, be it at the radio-dealer level or among the largest manufacturers, impacting well-known names like Sepura, PowerTrunk, Airbus DS Communications and Motorola Solutions;
• One of the industry’s largest consulting firms, RCC Consultants, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; and
• New approaches to meet public safety’s needs are being examined, such as monetizing unused network capacity to improve economics or having commercial wireless carriers provide LMR services.

In addition, FirstNet is taking big steps toward deployment of its much-anticipated nationwide public-safety broadband network. After three years of considerable research and consultation but little tangible activity, FirstNet has released its draft RFP documents and announced plans to issue the final RFP by the end of the year.

(Want to learn more about the draft RFP? Join us tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern time for a free webinar entitled, “FirstNet’s draft RFP: What does it mean to me?” You can register here.)

In its draft RFP documents, FirstNet outlines its deployment vision for the network. One notable benchmark is that the timetable calls for LTE Release 13—the LTE release that is supposed to include mission-critical voice functionality, including group calls and direct-mode voice for off-network communications—to be deployed throughout the network two years after FirstNet awards the RFP.

FirstNet plans to release the final RFP by the end of this year. Bidders presumably will have a few months to respond, and FirstNet likely will need several months to evaluate the proposals and make its award decision. A project award could be done as early as late 2016, but it certainly could happen sometime in 2017, if a qualifying bid—one that enables FirstNet to be sustainable in the long term—is submitted.

If LTE Release 13 is deployed two years after the award, as proposed in the draft RFP, then public-safety entities inside the coverage area at the time—about 60% of the overall coverage, according to FirstNet—would have another mission-critical voice choice sometime in 2019.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that public safety would adopt it that soon, but it does mean that there will be opportunities to compare capabilities and resiliency to the traditional LMR voice networks. If FirstNet can provide mission-critical voice in the proposed timeframe, it would have a significant impact on the dynamics for strategic decision-making surrounding voice services throughout the industry.