Real Work on Public Safety Network Yet to Come, Says Member of FCC Advisory Board
FirstNet faces a tough challenge starting this summer to put in place a wireless network for first responders, Steve Proctor, a member of the 15-member Technical Advisory Board for First Responder Interoperability, told the National Public Safety Telecommunication Council at a meeting in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday. The board, which operated under the FCC, submitted its report to the agency in May. The FirstNet board, which is under NTIA, hasn’t been appointed. Both committees were established by the spectrum legislation, which was enacted in February.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
"I personally believe, from my viewpoint, the real work is yet to come,” said Proctor, executive director of the Utah Communications Agency Network. “I'm confident that the minimum requirements we've established will serve FirstNet well, but I think the real work is yet to come as FirstNet stands up this board and that board begins working together to develop this network. It has a long road to go."
Proctor said his experiences in Utah speaks to the challenges faced by the FirstNet board. “I've had personal experience in developing a network in this manner from a piece of legislation and a little bit of funding into a fully vibrant and operational network,” he said. “I know they have a very tough task ahead of them especially when you consider they're not dealing with one state, they're dealing with 50 states and the associated organizations that make up those states, cities and counties."
David Buchanan, chairman of NPSTC’s Spectrum Management Committee, said negotiations with Mexico remain a problem area as public agencies look at build out of communications systems in the 700 MHz band. Only half the 700 MHz spectrum dedicated to public safety is usable along the Mexican border, said Buchanan, who is also network services supervisor for San Bernardino County, Calif. “This needs to get resolved before they can really build out properly in the border area … as FirstNet goes in,” he said. The U.S. also still needs to work out an agreement with Mexico on 800 MHz rebanding along the border, he said. “That has not been able to happen to date,” he said. “Most of the nation has either gone through it, in the middle of it and been wrestling with [rebanding] for quite a while. Along the border regions, Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and a strip along Texas, they've just been on hold, haven’t been able to do anything.”
Buchanan said NPSTC is also waiting for a clean up order from the FCC on narrowbanding rules. “There’s a number of just minor changes that need to be done to the rules to make them consistent,” he said. A working group within the committee is also trying to develop proposed rule changes for the 4.9 GHz band, he said. An order on the future of the band is slated for a vote at the FCC’s Jun 13 meeting. “This band can really help out for backhaul, point-to-point, if we make some changes,” Buchanan said. There’s been so little frequency coordination in the 4.9 GHz band that it has been difficult to use, he said. “Folks are just not certain about if they're going to get interference or not or if they're interfering with someone else. Because there’s just no way to know the way the rules are set up right now.”