Public Safety Broadband: Measuring Success � ANDREWSEYBOLD.com

Public Safety Broadband: Measuring Success � ANDREWSEYBOLD.com: Now that the 700 MHz D-Block has been reallocated to Public Safety to provide 20 MHz (10X10 MHz) of total nationwide broadband spectrum, funding, and a new governance organization, how do we measure the success of this new network? I believe it is important to be able to provide both those who doubt its viability and those who might be interested in forming public/private partnerships with a way to measure the level of success as the network is built and put into operation.

700 MHz public-safety LTE network won't break ground for a year - FierceBroadbandWireless

700 MHz public-safety LTE network won't break ground for a year - FierceBroadbandWireless: Construction on the public-safety LTE network planned for 700 MHz D-block spectrum will likely not begin for at least a year because the government must first accomplish considerable planning and setup work.

FirstNet, the authority charged with managing the public-safety network, must be established by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) by Aug. 20. Once FirstNet's 15-member board is set up, it will begin addressing a host of formative tasks, including releasing a request for proposal (RFP) for construction of the nationwide network, which it can only do after it consults with representatives of each state, according to an article in Urgent Communications. The publication quoted Anna Gomez, NTIA's deputy assistant secretary, as saying this RFP process is going to take several months to complete once it is initiated.

D-Block network won't be available for first responders for a while - Tony Romm - POLITICO.com

D-Block network won't be available for first responders for a while - POLITICO.com: 
It took years for lawmakers to approve a wireless broadband network for police officers and firefighters.
And it’ll be a few more years, at least, before that system is available to first responders nationwide. With new resources from Congress in hand, regulators and public safety agencies are just now beginning to translate their vision for an upgraded communications system into reality. How they meet a series of tough benchmarks over the next six months will be critical to the success or failure of the long-sought network.

In the process, regulators seem poised to grapple with the likelihood that a nationwide public safety broadband system could prove more costly than Congress imagined, and just as difficult and expensive to build and operate as critics have suggested.

DHS wants to ride commercial wave for interoperable radio network - FederalNewsRadio.com: "We have this wave of commercial capability that is outstripping everything we've done in our traditional land mobile radio capability," said Richard Spires, DHS chief information officer, Friday during a breakfast sponsored by AFCEA Bethesda in Bethesda, Md. "How is that we can, as a government, start to leverage that capability? I don't want to be in the business of building towers. We just don't want to do that anymore. We are not that good at that. We are not a telecommunications provider. That is not our expertise. We want to buy these capabilities as services."

Homeland Security Today: Despite Funding of Public Safety Broadband Network, Technical Challenges May Keep First Responders from Using it For a Decade: President Barack Obama signed legislation Wednesday to fund a nationwide interoperable broadband communications network for US first responders, but congressional investigators warned the same day that it could take a decade for the network to materialize as envisioned.

Public safety gets its D Block wish, doesn't have to return narrowband spectrum -- Urgent Communications: Over the past eight years, there have been three all-consuming stories that we have covered: the reconfiguration of the 800 MHz band, the narrowbanding of spectrum in the UHF band, and public safety’s pursuit of spectrum in the 700 MHz band — the so-called D Block — that would provide the foundation for a nationwide wireless broadband network. Today, as Senior Writer Donny Jackson reports, Congress has struck a deal to make that network possible by reallocating the D Block to public safety and committing $7 billion of federal money to build it.

Obama's Next Solyndra-Style Scandal Is Called "LA-RICS" - Forbes: "Remember those 'shovel ready' jobs that President Obama promised the $700 billion stimulus bill would create? Almost four years and more than $250 million in federal grants later, they still haven’t arrived in Los Angeles.

"Meanwhile, life-saving improvements to the police, fire and other local government communications systems have been delayed–putting the more than 9 million residents of Los Angeles County at risk.'

Why public shouldn't return narrowband spectrum in D Block deal: We are fast approaching the sixth anniversary of Morgan O’Brien’s pronouncement — made during his keynote address at IWCE — that not only should a wireless broadband network for first responders be deployed, it also was feasible. There were a great many skeptics at the time who posed a slew of legitimate questions.

Will DOJ Tech Project Die After 10 Years?: A secure, interoperable radio network that the Department of Justice has been working on for more than a decade and that has cost the agency $356 million may be headed for failure, according to a new report by the agency's inspector general.

According to the report, inadequate funding, frequent revisions to DOJ's plans, and poor coordination threaten the success of the Integrated Wireless Network (IWS) and could leave the agency with obsolete radio equipment that doesn't communicate well with other radio systems, which could in turn pose a threat to public safety.

FCC sees support for incentive auctions of wireless spectrum - chicagotribune.com: Julius Genachowski, the top U.S. telecommunications regulator, said on Wednesday that he has received bi-partisan support from a group of U.S. senators for so-called "incentive" auctions of wireless spectrum without legislative restrictions.

Genachowski, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, is looking for approval to give broadcasters a financial incentive to return unused spectrum licenses to the FCC so it can then auction off the spectrum to companies offering mobile data services.

Bay Area cities prepare for key vote on public-safety LTE -- Urgent Communications: Representatives of governmental entities in the San Francisco Bay Area are scheduled to vote next Thursday to decide whether their public-safety agencies will participate in the deployment and operation of a much-anticipated LTE network for the region’s first responders that would be built by Motorola Solutions.

Members of the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System (BayRICS) Authority next Thursday are expected to vote on the project, which likely will be smaller than originally envisioned. Proposed as 193-site LTE system, most discussions during last week’s BayRICS Authority meeting called for the number of sites to be reduced by at least 25% and that the public-access component of the proposal may be scrapped.

Verizon blames “growing pains” for LTE 4G outages | VentureBeat: Verizon Wireless may be paying the price for being the first carrier in the world to widely roll out LTE 4G technology.

The carrier has pointed to the relative immaturity of LTE as the reason for its 4G service outages throughout 2011, reports GigaOm, who chatted with Verizon VP of network engineering Mike Haberman yesterday.

Homeland Security gets more cyber funding, less for science research -- Federal Computer Week: Southwestern border technology, scientific research programs and grants for state and local first responders are losing support in the Homeland Security Department’s final budget for fiscal 2012 approved by Congress. Meanwhile, cybersecurity and biosurveillance systems are among the programs gaining expanded funding.

Once upon a time in a land far, far away... | Daryl Jones' Weblog: Once upon a time in the land of Far-Far-Away in the State of Insolvent there were some chiefs from Bewildered County. They had an old-fashioned stupid plain vanilla analog radio system that worked perfectly two thirds of the time, but the other third of the time their radios had a little static.

Even though it almost never-ever failed completely it just wasn’t rosy and perfect. They could still talk to all their neighbors (who had old-fashioned stupid plain vanilla analog radio systems too), but not directly to the Big Department in Crooked County hundreds of miles away, or to the Inspectors from the State of Insolvent or the Men from Far-Far-Away. And most importantly, it just wasn’t shiny and NEW. .....

Communications upgrade for first responders - Washington Times: Congress must decide between a fiscally irresponsible 20th-century model of dedicated, expensive public-safety networks that become rapidly obsolete or a 21st-century model of cost-effective public-private, shared infrastructure. Our country can afford neither billions of dollars to build and operate a new dedicated public-safety network nor the reallocation of commercial spectrum to dedicated public-safety use when a far more cost-effective path forward is available.

Consumers Energy: interoperability, in-house and out | Intelligent Utility: In-house, Gillmore [director of enterprise architecture and standards and chief architect] explained, "guiding principle number one is loosely coupled, layered architectures. You should be able to change layers out without breaking the upper stack. We've taken those principles into our architectural smart grid approach for interoperability. Loosely coupled and layered architecture allows electric meters to be agnostic of the underlying communications technology. Our selected technology allows us to use any of the nation's major wireless carriers. This approach also allows us to use any electric meter technology, as appropriate."

In the 'It Should Be So Easy Department', Biden Breathlessly Claims Broadband Wireless is a Replacement for LMR : "Instead of the old radios they use now, first responders will communicate with devices that will also let them transmit video, images and data. Firefighters will be able to download building schematics onto their devices to find the best routes to safety. A police officer will be able to quickly determine if the car in the traffic stop is stolen or if the driver has an outstanding warrant. EMTs will be able to transmit pictures from an accident scene ahead to doctors in the emergency room. Lives will, quite simply, be saved."

Big Money for Public Safety Broadband?: "WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will today detail his plan to win the future by catalyzing the buildout of high-speed wireless services that will enable businesses to grow faster, students to learn more, and public safety officials to access state-of-the-art, secure, nationwide, and interoperable mobile communications."

Mesmerized by Technology Department: "Hoping to solve problems fingered by a 9/11 commission, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted a Third Report and Order (Order) and Fourth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) drafted to advance communications interoperability for U.S. first responders."

Critical Stewardship

A friend recently wondered why so many large radio projects for public safety are on the skids. The answer is many-faceted, but the common characteristic of successful projects is simple: Critical stewardship.

Fiscal discipline is the heart of critical stewardship. Stewards include not only the users of such systems, but elected representatives and, ultimately, the public that pays for them. Costs - all costs - are examined from the beginning. Sources of funding are closely examined, with conservative assumptions taken with fiscal questions. Funding is assumed to come directly from the affected jurisdictions rather than taxpayers in others who are already paying for their own needs. Cautious practicality serves best, avoiding emotional appeals and purveyors of glittering generalities.

The simple question can be asked, "Is this sustainable?" Sustainability includes operation, maintenance, and life cycle replacement of systems. If those costs, alone, are prohibitive, some other "solution" is in order. The features and promised benefits may be attractive, but "Field of Dreams" projects are generally irresponsible - unless they are funded by individuals, companies, or directly-accountable officials who will bear the costs if failure befalls.