Interoperability Must Be the Top Consideration as FirstNet is Launched, Barnett Says
Interoperability has to be the No. 1 priority as the U.S. starts a national wireless broadband network for first responders, or there’s little chance interoperability will be achieved at all, FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett told the Technical Advisory Board for First Responder Interoperability. The board was created by the recently enacted Spectrum Act to develop interoperability rules for the new FirstNet. On Monday, the board held a morning-long workshop as it heard from panels representing various interests, from public safety to industry.
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Barnett issued a strong warning against developing rules that build flexibility into the network while sacrificing interoperability. “There’s certainly no natural law of interoperability,” he said. “American ingenuity promotes pride and differentiation. That’s what we do. We try to make things better and sometimes that pulls against [interoperability]. Second, there are very few paths by which you can achieve interoperability but a thousand ways to thwart it. Third, and probably the most important, ... interoperability must be the first priority if it is to be achieved.” If interoperability isn’t the top priority, it “just doesn’t get pushed down a little, it can be obliterated,” Barnett said.
Barnett said he’s “alarmed” by recent suggestions that the technical advisory board’s recommendations be “non-specific” allowing maximum flexibility. “Flexibility sounds good until you remember your statutory duty,” he said. “You are to develop minimum technical requirements to ensure national interoperability -- not the best technical requirements, not the most technical requirements, not the ones that you would think would be most effective -- only the minimum to ensure nationwide interoperability.” The board cannot allow interoperability at levels below minimum requirements, Barnett said. Some suggest that the intent of Congress was to allow maximum flexibility in the new FirstNet, he said. “There are no reports, no legislative history that indicate this,” he said, just the “plain language” of the statute. The FCC released its own recommendations April 6 in a memorandum from the bureau (http://xrl.us/bm4uq6), he noted. “If it turns out that FirstNet is not interoperable nationwide, the nation will look back at the interoperability board and ask why,” he said. “What will be your answer?” Barnett is leaving the FCC at the end of this week and being replaced on an acting basis by Deputy Chief David Furth.
NTIA Deputy Administrator Anna Gomez noted that the to-be-appointed FirstNet board falls under her agency. That board will have to take a number of factors into consideration as it moves forward on the network, she said. The FCC panel should do nothing more than set “baseline requirements,” Gomez said. It should “resist the urge” to impose rules that would make FirstNet less “nimble” and unable to change as technology improves, she said. “I will tell you FirstNet must have the flexibility to be able to operate and maintain this network over the years to come.” Chuck Robinson, chairman of the new FCC interoperability board who represents Charlotte, N.C., said his group faces a huge challenge. “There is a huge amount of pressure on this board to deliver a high-quality product in a very short amount of time,” he said. “It’s a daunting task. It’s a balancing act."
Brian Fontes, CEO of the National Emergency Number Association, told the FCC panel it needs to strike a balance “between what is absolutely essential for the network to work and to be interoperable” and rules that too tightly define how the network will operate. In the early stages, much will be learned, he said. “From the public safety perspective and the commercial perspective, there will have to be additional fine tuning of the requirements.” If the government overspecifies requirements, it could drive down the number of companies that want to be involved with FirstNet and drive up the overall costs, he said.
The law requires the integration of FirstNet and public safety answering points, Fontes said. “We need to mainstream 911 technology into the 21st century” he said. “We need to have improvements for survivability and we need to improve the interoperability and information sharing that will be necessary in this 21st century way of communications.” Text and files to 911, streaming video, telematics and sensors are all important, he said. “Most communication is non-voice communication.”
Tom Sorley, chair of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council’s Technology Committee, said he views interoperability as critical. “Generally speaking, we believe less is more, especially as it relates to this group,” he said. The FCC panel should consider prohibiting proprietary technologies that could interfere with interoperability, Sorley said. “We don’t believe you ought to make too many more conclusions than that,” he said. “FirstNet is charged with running this. ... If we get too proscriptive we will end up tying their hands.”