South Korea plans to deploy mission-critical PTT over LTE this year
What is in this article?
South Korea plans to deploy mission-critical PTT over LTE this year
In the United Kingdom, officials plan to replace the Airwave TETRA system with public-safety LTE, according to Gordon Shipley, program director for emergency mobile communications services at The Home Office—the UK ministerial department responsible for security and public safety.
“[Airwave is] a private network that covers the whole of the UK, and it does a very good job,” Shipley said during the PSCR meeting in June. “But it’s voice-only, it’s extremely expensive—as private-finance initiatives often are toward the end of the contract period—and we’re going to have to recompete it.
“But one of the key missing components of Airwave is broadband, and the emergency services now buy … from mobile operators broadband services, tablets and smartphone. So we have, in effect, a dual system meeting the complete needs of emergency services.”
Shipley said UK officials hope to avoid the pitfalls of the current Airwave contract as public-safety communications migrate to LTE by providing a better service that is less expensive for first-responder organizations. Like South Korea, the UK plans to move to public-safety LTE quickly.
“We need to get it into service by 2017, so we’re on the same flight path as Korea,” Shipley said. “And we must have it complete by 2020, because come May of 2020, the contract runs out, and we’re supposed to be off of Airwave—and the way the contract is set out, it’s unclear exactly how we would extend it.”
Currently, 3GPP is not expected to complete the MCPTT standard until March 2016, and Thiessen has said it is likely that the process could be delayed by three to six months. Despite this, the UK plans to proceed with its public-safety LTE initiative at its current timetable using pre-standard public-safety LTE, with the stipulation that the provider will adhere to the 3GPP standards when they are completed, Shipley said.
The Early Builder Projects
The Early Builder Projects were suspended by NTIA to permit FirstNet to become a reality. Following the NTIA suspension, the FirstNet Spectrum Management Lease Agreements (SMLA’s) took many months to conclude. All in all the projects lost two years of productive opportunity.
Some of the BTOP projects were halted all together, some were downsized, and the remaining projects are in the final phase of completion.
The time lost prevented the BTOP projects from producing proof of concept, learning experiences, expansion, operational testing and other valuable experiences for two years, and still counting.
For the countries in the article (who visited some of the U.S projects probably to learn) to say they will be live by 2017; does not speak well for the efforts taken so far in this country. The Draft RFP will reportedly be followed by “subsequent RFP’s”, and it is likely the final RFP will not be out and awarded until at least 2017. Build out would follow so throw in about 4-5 more years.
FirstNet so far has been a VERY slow train to a yet to be determined destination. The years lost cannot be recovered and FirstNet still has not built or contracted for one operational site that is a simple fact. Certain complexities, and all of the issues we have been informed of cannot explain the difference in execution between this country and those in the article.
FirstNet and America can and should do better. If FirstNet were to encourage real – active participation across the country, and not rely on just limited personal exposure to State Consultations to set the tone, we would be much further ahead. I am sure there is some explanation-regulations, rules etc. in the way as we have heard before.
Let’s get some national synergy, national Public/Private commitment to the NPSBN. Present a collective focus, get caught up and maybe even go ahead. Thjs is about the protection, safety, and security of the United States period.
Some have said that government agencies cannot build the NPSBN. That they lack the ability to maintain mission critical LTE 24/7 unlike carriers-when public safety agencies all across the country have maintained significant LMR infrastructure for decades.
better name on this effort
better name on this effort would be LastNet…