FCC Greenlights Texas Public Safety Broadband Project for Another Six Months
The FCC gave Harris County, Texas, authority to continue its work on a public safety broadband network in the 700 MHz band. The Public Safety Bureau order, signed by Chief David Turetsky, was posted Friday (http://bit.ly/VuH38q) and extended the network’s special temporary authority (STA) by another six months, until Aug. 28. The FCC gave the Texas network a six-month authorization last fall. The state has partnered with the Harris County Information Technology Center to use 20 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band for public safety for, as the FCC authorized, 14 sites in Harris County. The county was among 21 entities granted waivers to operate in the 700 MHz band initially and had planned for such a network since 2009. It’s now slated to be folded into the proposed national FirstNet public safety network.
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Harris County’s initial STA was set to expire Saturday but Harris County applied for a renewal Feb. 8, according to the FCC’s order. The Texas request came with a letter from FirstNet that offered “concurrence ‘premised on temporary operations’ by Texas that conform to specified conditions and ’subject to FirstNet’s ongoing ability to monitor any operations and use of FirstNet’s licensed spectrum,'” the order said.
"Texas explains that it has brought the majority of its planned sites into operation and ‘has aggressively implemented the final deployment work items needed to initiate live public safety operation,'” the FCC bureau order said. “Texas represents that ‘no funding obstacles exist which would inhibit establishment of ... public safety operations within the coverage footprint’ of its STA grant. In addition, Texas continues to assert that the network will continue to support specific public safety needs, including ‘higher quality telemetry, on-site analysis and other tools to assist emergency response.'”
Such public safety LTE networks promise “integration of video, computer aided dispatch, priority service and LMR [land mobile radio] Push-to-Talk interoperability along with the ability to roam to a National Carrier with current subscribers being provisioned for the 3G network,” said Todd Early, deputy assistant director of the Texas Department of Public Safety Law Enforcement Support Division, in a Feb. 15 presentation on the Harris County efforts, posted to the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission website (http://bit.ly/WHuHM6). Early is also the statewide interoperability coordinator. The Texas department and Harris County Information Technology Center did not comment. The Harris County network will cover 0.6 percent of Texas and is “just the beginning,” Early’s presentation said. “Since the Texas Waiver, [the Texas Department of Public Safety] has filed over 1800 pages and over 70 filings with FCC,” it added.
"Motorola Solutions is pleased” that reauthorization was given for Harris County, a company spokesman said. “Through this extension, the network will continue to provide first responders with increased access to data and interoperable communications that are proving to be crucial in helping them serve and protect their communities. This network is the first of its kind, and it is introducing enhanced technology that will benefit public safety agencies."
The Harris County network and broader LTE public safety initiatives are crucial to positioning Texas for next-generation 911, its Mexico border operations and integration with existing P25 land mobile radio, according to Early’s presentation last month. Harris County finalized a master agreement with Relm Wireless for public safety P25 subscriber radios for operation on its TXWARN radio system, the company said last week (http://hrld.us/13ApyXL). Three companies received such agreements, it said, saying the maximum total value for all suppliers is $1 million. The agreement initially is set to last a year, beginning Jan. 29 and with four one-year options for the county, Relm said. Relm “initially provided approximately $2 million of P25 subscriber radios to Harris County last year,” said Relm CEO David Storey, who pledged in a statement that Relm is “committed to maintaining the same high level of product quality and customer service established with our initial deliveries last year.” The Texas Department of Public Safety website calls the idea of public safety LTE replacing such P25 radios “a controversial topic” and urges people to hold onto radios for now, suggesting public safety broadband will “augment” rather than replace the current system. The network “will serve primarily the public safety’s data needs while mission critical voice will still be handled by P25 systems,” it said (http://bit.ly/WrkhzJ).
Early’s presentation also pointed toward FirstNet and highlighted the millions in implementation grants NTIA is in the midst of offering. Those grant applications are due later this month, and Early noted Texas is “well positioned” for receiving such funds.