When anything significant takes place in the wireless industry that will affect the Public Safety community, Andrew Seybold can be counted on to take a hard look at it and then provide readers with straight answers about the promise, the reality, and the hype. He is Public Safety's Advocate before the FCC and the commercial wireless industry.
Deeply involved in the Public Safety community, he brings to his advocacy experiences gained over 40 years as a first responder, commercial vendor, consultant, writer, and educator as well as a grounding in the emerging world of wireless broadband communications.
When the noise level reaches a fever pitch, look to Andrew Seybold to provide a voice of reason that clarifies complex issues and provides invaluable insight that can be acted upon.
IF LTE broadband can meet both the voice and the data requirements of the first responder community, a single device could be deployed that would provide not only data/video interoperability, but voice interoperability as well. This would be an ideal situation and one that is worth pursing. However, existing narrowband spectrum should not be reallocated for other uses until such time as LTE broadband can and does meet all of the requirements for Public Safety mission critical voice as well as data and video services. more
On March 18, 2011, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which is a part of the Library of Congress, submitted a memorandum that has been used [...] more
Another lesson from these tests is that when the network was overloaded, that is, we tried to push more data and video over the system than it could handle, not only was the last data or video unusable, it also rendered existing data and video transmissions that were already in use unusable or at least unstable.
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However, it is my contention, and that of many others, that while the FCC does need to impose some rules that will help ensure nationwide interoperability, many of the items in the FNPRM should remain the purview of the various standards bodies that are working on the LTE and subsequent air-interface standards and that many other items should be determined by a Nationwide Network Governance Entity (NNGE). more
I am still very optimistic that Public Safety will prevail, especially during the year of the tenth anniversary of the tragic 9/11 attack in New York when the lack of Public Safety communications interoperability first came to the attention of the general public more
2011 is a pivotal year for Public Safety communications. It is a year when, I am confident, Congress will vote to reallocate the D Block to Public Safety, the narrowband 700-MHz channels will remain as they are, and some of the organizations that obtained waivers to build out their 700-MHz broadband systems will bring them online.
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The solution is for you, as members of Congress, to remove the 10 MHz of spectrum known as the D Block that is adjacent to the existing Public Safety spectrum from the auction pool and reallocate it directly to Public Safety for its use more
Next year will be the turning point for Public Safety—I know it and I think those in Congress who are opposed to the reallocation of the D Block are becoming aware of it more
Since Connect Public Safety Now believes that commercial broadband is more important than a Public Safety nationwide broadband network, I have taken to calling it “Connect Public Safety—NOT!”
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The goal of the PSHSB should be to provide public safety with a roadmap for BOTH nationwide interoperable voice and data services. To that end, the narrowband spectrum must be reserved for narrowband voice services and the broadband portion of the public safety spectrum reserved for fully interoperable broadband services. more