Long Term Evolution will serve as the planned public safety national broadband network's common air interface, the Federal Communications Commission decided Jan. 25.

Plans for a nationwide interoperable public safety network in the 700 megahertz spectrum have been underway for some years now. FCC commissioners voted unanimously during a monthly meeting to adopt LTE as the network's standard while also requesting public comment on (among other things) the architectural vision of the network, how interconnectivity between networks will be achieved and how security and encryption should be handled.

LTE is a 4G mobile network specification that provides peak rates of at least 100 megabits per second and a peak uplink of at least 50 Mbps.

The commissioners' decision to adopt LTE is hardly a surprise, given that LTE already had the endorsement of the Association of Public Safety Communication Officials and the National Emergency Numbers Association.

"If you had the FCC going at odds with what APCO has endorsed already, that would really set up set up a situation for confusion and or delay," said Peter Jarich, research director of wireless infrastructure and converged core at Current Analysis a market intelligence firm based in Washington, D.C.

"You'd end up with a situation for delay where the FCC would have been blamed for delay, and I think we've had enough delay already," he added.

In related news, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) reintroduced Jan. 25 a bill that would re-allocate a 10 MHz swatch of spectrum in the 700 band--the so-called D block--to public safety. That area of spectrum is currently slated for auction to the public sector, and the FCC contends that the national public safety broadband network doesn't require the additional bandwidth and that licensing the block to the public safety would actually result in rural first responders not being able to afford access to it. Some public safety organizations, including notably APCO, insist otherwise.

For more:
- go to a FCC press release on the LTE decision or a statement by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski
- go to a press statement from Sen. Rockefeller about the reintroduction of his D block bill  

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