Commentary LightSquared goes on the offensive in its battle with GPS 30th June 2011 LightSquared issued a press release in which it stated that its new plan for deploying its fledgling nationwide wholesale wireless broadband solves interference for “about 99.5% of commercial GPS devices, including 100% of the 300 million GPS-enabled cell phones.”
Education on properly using 911 system still is sorely needed 28th June 2011 At the NENA conference, I stumbled into the booth of a production company that is working on a television program called The World’s Most Ridiculous 911 Calls. Producers Joe Nelms and Sue Bailey were at the conference to collect stories from call-takers and dispatchers. And they collected some doozies.
Fixing the nation’s 911 system will require commitment, not rhetoric 23rd June 2011 This week, during the National Emergency Number Association’s conference in Minneapolis, much of the chatter was about NENA’s i3 standards, which provide the technical guidelines for the development of next-generation 911 technologies.
What will Sprint do next? 22nd June 2011 When it comes to Sprint’s next-generation mobile network strategy, it appears that anything could be in the works. The company has indicated it will reveal its 4G network strategy by the middle of this year. Will it make a flip from WiMAX to LTE? And if so, just how is it going to do it?
Narrowband competition debate underscores public safety’s need to consider broadband approach carefully 16th June 2011 With such financial help from the government and leaders making wise procurement decisions, public safety has an opportunity to foster a more competitive vendor landscape with LTE than it has in the LMR arena during the past several decades.
Chasm exists between LightSquared, GPS sector over interference issues 15th June 2011 The final report that LightSquared and the U.S. Global Positioning System Industry Council will deliver to the FCC is expected to reflect a huge gap between LightSquared and the GPS community concerning whether a technical fix to solve the interference issue is feasible. Reportedly, the GPS community now is saying that the FCC should move LightSquared to different spectrum as there is no viable technical fix.
The real battle over LightSquared’s network will be about money, not interference 1st June 2011 LightSquared has not hidden the fact that its signals may interfere with highly sensitive GPS receivers, and said it is looking at all options to mitigate any potential interference. Who knows what that might entail, but the GPS community and others have done a good job of lobbying their concerns, e.g., raising the potential for planes to fall out of the sky.
The road to everything 1st June 2011 The public-safety communications industry must broaden its understanding of LTE to envision what this technology can do, both alone and in concert with traditional narrowband and emerging commercial solutions.
T-Mobile: Wi-Fi an option for first responders 18th May 2011 Steve Sharkey said T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi calling service would allow emergency workers to use their consumer devices by creating an ad-hoc Wi-Fi coverage area using satellite as backhaul.
Performance metrics important to public-safety LTE 11th May 2011 Signals Research Group independently measured the performance of HSPA chipsets and found significant performance differences between chipsets and devices. That trend is expected to play out in the LTE market also, which means those public-safety entities need to pay attention to the types of devices and chipsets operating on their LTE networks.
Is LMR the best solution for first responders? Should 4.9 GHz license go to the FirstNet Authority? 2 24th March 2024
FirstNet Authority reauthorization needed as public-safety-driven network evolution proceeds 16th March 2024
