Homeland Security Today: Bill to Improve Interoperable Emergency Communications for First Responders Passed by House

Homeland Security Today: Bill to Improve Interoperable Emergency Communications for First Responders Passed by House: The State Wide Interoperable Communications Enhancement Act, or SWIC Enhancement Act (HR 2206), passed by the House would require states to have a Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC) or to delegate activities related to achieving interoperability to other individuals.

Homeland Security Today: NEW - Unlocking Interoperability: What It Means for Next-Generation Public Safety Communications

Homeland Security Today: NEW - Unlocking Interoperability: What It Means for Next-Generation Public Safety Communications - Robert Stack: You can’t go 60 seconds in a conversation about public safety communications without someone using the word “interoperability.” Plus, the number of interpretations—and misinterpretations—of what “interoperability" actually means is directly related to the number of participants in the conversation. That’s because “interoperability” means something different to the many facets in the industry.

Friendly Fire 'Kills' Allied Troops During NATO War Games in Germany / Sputnik International

Friendly Fire 'Kills' Allied Troops During NATO War Games in Germany / Sputnik International: "It's more than material. There are cognitive, procedural, and then technical aspects. We've got to all be on the same cognitive framework, we've got to have procedures on how to do things, and then there’s a technical solution."

Nontechnical Factors Determine Interoperability | SIGNAL Magazine

Nontechnical Factors Determine Interoperability | SIGNAL Magazine: Matching bytes and bandwidth is only the beginning for international coalitions.

Whither Interoperability?

With Friends in Government, Motorola Beats a Path to Telecom Supremacy: From the nation’s capital to the Pacific Coast, government officials have handed the company noncompetitive contracts, used modifications of years-old contracts to acquire new systems or crafted bid specifications to Motorola’s advantage. These officials, perhaps without recognizing their collective role, have helped stunt the very competition that’s needed to hold down prices and assure the most efficient use of government dollars.

FirstNet

FirstNet Moves Forward, But Hurdles Remain: The logic behind creating a nationwide broadband network for first responders is simple. Deploy a high-speed wireless communications system so that federal, state and local emergency response personnel can share data, do their jobs more efficiently and save more lives in the process.

Maximizing use of FirstNet network is critical to ongoing feasibility

Morgan O'Brien is arguably the smartest man existent when it comes to the wireless business.  He has also invested a considerable amount of money and time in planning for public safety broadband.

Maximizing use of FirstNet network is critical to ongoing feasibility: "FirstNet's first steps, as reflected in the reports and proposals from their Denver meeting in February, show just the blend of boldness and caution that this project demands. This is shaping up to be much more than a "glass half-full." Give credit to NTIA and the strong, diverse team of players they have recruited to undertake this task of unprecedented scale and complexity."

Defense News

$7 Billion Disconnect: FirstNet Aims to Get First Responders Talking 12 Years After 9/11: After 11 years and billions of homeland-security dollars spent since 9/11, Winchester’s plight remains maddeningly common. With radio systems set up town by town, county by county and state by state — sometimes even department by department — America’s police and fire departments are still awash in a sea of networks and frequencies that often can’t communicate with each other.

Las Vegas Metro PD Radio System

Las Vegas police dump problem radio system: On Oct. 11, Gillespie informed the CEO of the Harris Corp. that his company's Desert Sky radio system cannot meet his department's needs. That's a sharp change from past statements and advice to officers to remain patient while system bugs are fixed.

Pentagon shutters Joint Tactical Radio System program office - Nextgov.com

Pentagon shutters Joint Tactical Radio System program office: After struggling for 15 years to develop a software-based radio for all four services at a cost of $15 billion, the Pentagon quietly shut down the Joint Tactical Radio System program office earlier this month and transferred its acquisition functions to the Army.

FCC Puts Local Public-Safety Networks on Hold - WSJ.com

FCC Puts Local Public-Safety Networks on Hold (subscription): Federal regulators affirmed Tuesday that most cities and states planning to start wireless broadband networks for police and other first responders must wait until a new national public-safety network is operational.

How Obama's visit showed Oakland radios' unreliability

How Obama's visit showed Oakland radios' unreliability: This city's year-old $18 million police radio system failed repeatedly during President Barack Obama's visit to Oakland on Monday and during protests surrounding it.

The FirstNet Board of Directors - Andy Seybold

The FirstNet Board of Directors: These people must be recruited from within the wireless industry, preferably from among those who have “already been there and already done that.” In order to attract the quality of people needed, I believe their compensation level will have to be well beyond Federal Executive Level 4. As an independent authority, FirstNet employees should not report to the NTIA, they should report to the FirstNet board.

Competition Worries Snag Verizon Deal - WSJ.com

Competition Worries Snag Verizon Deal: The Justice Department is holding up Verizon Wireless's $3.9 billion deal to acquire cable-company airwaves over concerns a related agreement will hurt competition for broadband Internet service, according to people familiar with the matter.

Remember to Feed the Elephants - David Kahn

Elephant #4 - Public Safety needs an applications interoperability platform: Public-safety communications professionals are excited about the federal legislation enacted in February — and with good reason. The new law grants the 700 MHz spectrum known as the D Block to public safety and provides $7 billion in initial funding for a nationwide broadband voice and data communications network.

Earlier this year I attended NIST’s 700 MHz Public Safety Broadband Demonstration Stakeholders Meeting, where very smart people presented their visions for the national LTE/4G network. However there seemed to be a few elephants in the room that largely were ignored, as follows.

BTOP Grants for Public Safety Slowed

Strickling Defends Stand-Down of Public Safety Net Projects: National Telecommunications Information Administration chief Larry Strickling found himself defending the agency's decision last week to put a partial hold on seven broadband public safety network projects, including ones funded through broadband grants.

At a House Communications Subcommittee Hearing on NTIA's and the Rural Utilities Service broadband grants under the Farm Bill and Recovery Act, Strickling was hit with questions from Republican legislators from states -- Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas -- whose projects had gotten the word to stand down, at least until NTIA vets them against plans for a national interoperable broadband public safety network, now being dubbed FirstNet, which NTIA is helping oversee.

Emergency services getting a static-free slice of broadband

Canadian emergency services getting a static-free slice of broadband: Police officers, firefighters and paramedics across [Canada] soon will be able to communicate with each other using a broadband network dedicated to emergency services.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced Thursday the allocation of 10 MHz of the highly coveted 700 MHz broadband spectrum for use by emergency service providers.

How Verizon Wireless May Kill Hope for LTE Interoperability - Businessweek

How Verizon Wireless May Kill Hope for LTE Interoperability - Businessweek: The technology wars were supposed to be over. The global adoption of LTE as a common 4G technology was going to heal the rift between the CDMA and GSM camps and give U.S. consumers more freedom to switch between carriers, as well as the ability to choose from a set of common devices that could work on any network. Well, forget it. Verizon Wireless’s planned sale of its extra LTE spectrum pretty much quashes that dream.

Instead of coalescing around mutually exclusive technologies, U.S. carriers are now coalescing around mutually exclusive spectrum bands. The result is the same: A Verizon LTE phone won’t work on an AT&T (T) LTE network and vice-versa.

New York City CTO resigns over public safety wireless network debacle | MuniWireless: WiFi, LTE, 4G

New York City CTO resigns over public safety wireless network debacle: The NYC Wireless Network (NYCWiN) launched in 2008, more than four years after the RFP was issued, and many had high hopes for the network, which was to be dedicated to one use: public safety. The users of the network were to be the NY Police Department and the NY Fire Department.

FCC staff: A broadband baseline is needed - FCC staff offered their assessment of interoperability issues under consideration with public safety broadband prior to passage of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (Spectrum Act).