In-building coverage for FirstNet wanted, but many details remain unknown
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In-building coverage for FirstNet wanted, but many details remain unknown
Scalera said that AT&T will include Band 14 in all of its future in-building systems, but he does not know whether the carrier plans to make changes to the infrastructure in its existing 6,000 facilities.
Kevin Nida, FirstNet’s consultation co-lead for the states of California, Nevada and Arizona, said that in-building coverage requirements for public-safety land mobile radio (LMR) network are established by each Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ)—often a municipality or a county. Typically, these requirements are implemented by the AHJ adopting portions of fire codes or electrical code that determine in-building coverage requirements.
Building owners should turn to their AHJ for guidance about providing coverage for FirstNet, Nida said.
“They need to start with their AHJ, because that’s the approving authority,” Nida said. “They really need to start at that local level and work their way up. If they can’t the answer from their AHJ, they need to go to their county or their state fire marshal.
“Approvals and certifications are important to make sure that we have a high-quality system, so we don’t have interference issues.”
Safer Buildings Coalition Executive Director Alan Perdue said that recent fire codes include language that was designed to help AHJs address the need for in-building coverage for FirstNet.
“The code has a requirement that says that, if new frequencies are utilized by the jurisdiction, they have to be incorporated into the in-building system,” Perdue said. “That’s one reason why we recommend plug-and-play [solutions] and not rip-and-replace for OEMs that are manufacturing equipment in the future.
“The second thing is that we added some language in the 2018 edition of the fire code that specifically mentions applications, to try to bring insight to FirstNet coming forward. We’re working on that and we’ll continue to work on that.”
All speakers acknowledged that there is a considerable amount of uncertainty about what FirstNet’s in-building requirements are, making it difficult for a building owner to make an immediate purchasing decision. However, greater clarity on the subject is a near-term goal.
“We have a lot of education and training to do,” Nida said. “I’m definitely going to bring this back to FirstNet, and I think we’ll have some good solutions, working with our partner.”
Perdue echoed this sentiment.
“How does a building owner know what to do?” Perdue said. “We’re currently working with staff at FirstNet and staff at AT&T and have asked that question. We need a matrix, so that when somebody says, ‘What do we need to do to be compliant with FirstNet?’ we’ll have an answer that we can hand out to our members and our members can hand out to building owners and others who are working in the space.”