FCC unveils plan for public safety network

Federal efforts to create interoperable first-responder communications could receive a boost with an FCC plan to spend between $12 million and $16 million on a nationwide interoperable public safety wireless broadband network.

James Barnett, head of the FCC's public safety and homeland security bureau, wrote about FCC plans Wednesday in a blog post.

"Our central recommendation is the creation of a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband wireless network through incentive-based partnerships between public safety agencies and the partner of their choice," he wrote. His plan "also recommends that the FCC create an Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC) to ensure a baseline of operability and interoperability for the network nationwide."

Perhaps the biggest news from the plan is the decree that the nationwide network be based on 700 megahertz spectrum. Information Week notes that an earlier attempt to improve and create uniformity in the systems failed two years ago after the FCC attempted to auction off a section of the 700 MHz D-Block, but had no luck attracting bids.

Achieving interoperable communications for public safety networks has long been a challenge. First responders have lamented the lack of interoperability, but old equipment, poor coordination among emergency services and the physical properties of spectrum--which require some departments to use one swath of spectrum over others--have complicated the matter.

Public safety spectrum issues have been on the federal government's radar for decades. In the early 2000's the Homeland Security Department purchased radios that incorporate the Project-25 standards--the only user-defined standards for public safety communication in the country--for the nation's 28 search and rescue teams. In 2001, DHS and the Office of Management and Budget also created SAFECOM, a program dedicated to wireless communications interoperability.

For more:
- see this Information Week article
- see Barnett's blog post

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