The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council Wednesday appeared set at our deadline to tentatively endorse LTE over WiMAX as the air interface for a proposed national public safety broadband network. APCO and the National Emergency Number Association endorsed LTE in a statement the groups released jointly Tuesday. NPTSC officials also discussed other technical issues regarding the proposed network Wednesday at a meeting of NPSTC’s governing board.

Ahead of a Wednesday meeting on rules for the 700 MHz D block, scheduled by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, commenters responded to public safety questions asked by the FCC in its broadband inquiry in filings at the agency. APCO said it continues to support the “basic approach” for the D block originally adopted by the FCC, which is to sell the spectrum so a public-private partnership can build out a national public safety network. “Absent a national network approach, only those agencies with sufficient resources and expertise will be able to deploy broadband, and there is no assurance that systems will be interoperable or be able to take advantage of ‘off-the-shelf’ technologies and standards,” APCO said. In response to one of the questions asked by the FCC in the NOI, APCO said it’s difficult to say how public safety will use wireless broadband once it’s widely available. “In general, public safety is likely to have a substantial need for all types of video applications, both on a day-to-day basis and for major emergencies that require extensive command and control capability,” the group said. “Video will need to be real-time, with mobile (and probably airborne) capability over wide areas. High-speed, reliable access to specialized databases (for building diagrams, criminal records, medical information and images etc.) will also be critical for public safety personnel in the field. Communication will need to be two-way, with comparable speeds for upstream and downstream capability.” The National Emergency Number Association said public safety has an urgent need to modernize its communications systems. “911 and emergency communications and response systems remain largely stuck in the technology and mentality of the 20th Century at a time when 21st Century broadband-enabled technologies are being deployed throughout most other sectors in the U.S.,” NENA said. “The results are responders without numerous forms of available and useful information, emergency communications systems that are often inflexible and insufficiently redundant during major disasters, and overall system inefficiencies.” NENA said a public safety broadband network like one proposed for the 700 MHz D block should be based on a single standard and technology platform that “takes advantage of the significant research and development of the commercial wireless industry” and be supported by a “known and recurring funding source.”

CTIA and National Emergency Number Association officials warned that a growing number of states are redirecting E-911 funds, especially in light of the slumping economy and budget problems. In most of the states where the funds are being raided, many counties still don’t have E911 Phase II coverage, or in some cases even basic Phase I coverage. The FCC is scheduled to take on the issue in a report it will make to Congress in July as a requirement of NET 911 Improvement Act.

CTIA and the National Emergency Number Association protested a decision by Wisconsin to transfer $20 million in funds raised through a 911 surcharge to the state’s general fund. The state faces a $1.6 billion budget deficit as a result of the nation’s slumping economy. Wisconsin previously imposed a 75-cent monthly 911 surcharge on all phone lines, including cellphones and VoIP lines. “This funding is extremely critical to Wisconsin’s 911 systems and ensures that 911 callers can quickly be located in emergency situations and receive an effective emergency response,” CTIA and NENA said in a letter to Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat. These “911 calls save lives, locate missing children and prevent numerous crimes. The 911 system is also in need of an upgrade and diverting these funds will potentially delay efforts within the state to modernize the state’s 911 system.”

The Public Safety Spectrum Trust asked the NTIA to devote at least 20 percent of its broadband-grant money to applications to improve public safety’s access to broadband and use of it. The trust said public safety improvement was one of the five core goals of Congress in approving the money. “NTIA similarly should recognize the value of public safety services and designate no less than one-fifth of the funds to further Congress’s public safety goals.” The National Emergency Number Association, meanwhile, asked the FCC to use its position as adviser to the NTIA and the RUS to help make public-safety communications central to their programs. “The NTIA/RUS broadband initiatives offer a significant opportunity to foster the migration from analog, voice-centric 911 and emergency communications systems, into a 21st century, next generation, IP broadband-based emergency services model that embraces a wide range of voice, video, and data applications,” NENA said. “Given the FCC’s previous and ongoing emergency communications efforts, the Commission should provide assistance to NTIA and RUS to ensure that they successfully establish programs that enable investment in the infrastructure, services and applications for safety organizations that will enable the effective and vastly expanded use of broadband networks for emergency response.”

To speed responses to emergency calls from users of telecom relay service, the FCC should allow video and Internet-based TRS providers to give communications assistant ID numbers to public safety orally, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association said in a letter to the FCC Tuesday. Commission rules require providers to send the IDs through the automatic location database, but public safety answering points can’t receive the information without making expensive changes to their systems, the groups said. The changes may also add to the costs of providers and 911 equipment vendors, they said. The FCC can avoid raising costs by removing the automatic-transmission requirement, APCO and NENA said. “Oral transmission of CA ID information can occur without any delay to emergency call processing and at no additional cost to PSAPs or providers.”

Broadband funds made available through the economic stimulus package and Universal Service Fund monies could play a big role in moving public safety answering points into a new world where they have to take a growing number of VoIP calls and otherwise modernize their systems, Greg Rohde, executive director of the E911 Institute said Wednesday. Rohde spoke at an FCC summit on the future of 911 and the problems local governments face trying to keep up in an IP era.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The 800 MHz rebanding, begun with a landmark 2004 FCC order, may take years more, public safety officials said this week at APCO’s Winter Summit. Though a July commission deadline still formally applies except near national borders, many systems won’t finish this year, officials said.

Conferrees reached agreement Wednesday on an estimated $790 billion economic stimulus bill (HR-1) with more than $6 billion in funding for broadband grants. Details on specific provisions were not available at our deadline but the bill was expected to favor language on broadband that the Senate passed. The report is said to include the Senate’s non- discrimination language on network management rather than stricter House language that would have required the FCC and NTIA to come up with a definition of open access 45 days after the bill passed, according to those who saw copies of the report.

Ninety-five percent of Americans live in counties covered by phase II E911 service, up from 90 percent a year ago, the National Emergency Number Association said. Also, 90 percent of public safety answering points are now phase II capable, the NENA said. The bad news, it said, is that 20 percent of the nation’s 3,135 counties are not. Most are in rural areas, the group said. “Significant progress continues to be made,” said Brian Fontes, NENA president. “However, it is essential that we continue to expand Wireless Phase II into the areas that, in many ways, need it the most rural America.”