National Public Safety Network Still A No Show Though FCC tells us they're working on it... Updated with FCC response. The New York Times laments the fact that nearly a decade after emergency personnel were unable to communicate during the World Trade Center attacks, there's still no national public safety network in place. The effort is one of dozens of FCC efforts that remain in regulatory purgatory, and as we noted back in July, the attempt to get a national emergency network built has run into a roadblock: namely, public safety officials want more direct control of spectrum, and the FCC (and carriers) want any such system to piggyback on existing incumbent networks (which will of course both save money on construction costs, and be a subsidy/money maker for incumbents). In the meantime, cities like San Francisco aren't waiting, and are busily building their own networks while DC lobbyists bicker. Update: The FCC reached out to us to note that San Francisco's initiative is actually proceeding with help from the FCC, and isn't just a rogue effort operating in isolation from broader efforts: The San Francisco initiative for the early deployment of a public safety broadband network is one of 21 waivers the FCC approved across the country for this purpose. The Bay Area is leading the way in this effort in coordination with the FCC. These early build-outs will require coordination and teamwork at various levels of government to accomplish with success and we look forward to working with all of these jurisdictions. There are 20 additional waivers pending FCC approval for similar buildouts by states, cities and counties in various regions of the country as well.
We expect to approve those soon. We've also established the Emergency Interoperability Response Center or ERIC and a public safety advisory committee to make sure that these networks are truly interoperable and that a framework is established that enables these networks to connect as one some day, creating a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network for America's first responders, hospitals and state and local governments.
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 | | $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Far more important to politicians then their constituents...
Let people still cheerlead for their sides... | |
| Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| it's not up to politicians nothing major gets done in this country impacting any sizeable industry unless that industry "buys off" on it. meaning that if it isn't exactly what they want and will make them tons of money, they won't allow it to happen.
it's called a "corporatocracy" and that's what we have in the U.S. | |
|  | n2ubp
join:2007-07-13
Middletown, NY |  Re: it's not up to politicians
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| | | Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
| Re: it's not up to politicians said by n2ubp:... I say scrap everything and start again. absolutely agree. also agree that's not going to happen...ever. unless and until the current govt structure collapses and is replaced. | |
| | | |  N3OGHCertified GLG-20Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
kudos:1
·Verizon FiOS
| Re: it's not up to politicians Agreed on both points.
It's hard enough to get 4 or 5 police departments to share a dispatch sector (small, municipal departments), let alone get the fire guys, the band aid stretchers, and the cops all using radios that work together.
The only place I know they're doing this on a state level is Delaware. All of the police, fire, ambulance, probation & parole, and corrections are using the same digital trunked system, and all can talk to the other as long as the radios are programmed for it. They started out with the ASTRO radios, and right now, the Moto XTS 5000's are seeing extensive use as portables.
I remember they had a LOT of issues work the bugs out of it back in the late 90's early 2000's. One Vol. Firefighter lost his life in Claymont about a decade ago, as his radio lost signal in the basement of a working house fire and didn't get the evac notice.
Overall though, the system has just about 100% coverage now, and most of the end users have little complaints, so their is precedent for making it work on the older trunking technology...
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Petty people are disproportionally corrupted by petty power | |
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 ThrowDemsOutIf you can't convince 'em, confuse 'emPremium
join:2002-03-03
Mullica Hill, NJ
kudos:4 |  National networks and cellphones make Safety Net unneeded
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| | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:1 | Re: National networks and cellphones make Safety Net unneeded You mean like the already available Wireless Priority Service? | |
| | | jophanPremium
join:2009-07-12
Jenkintown, PA | Re: National networks and cellphones make Safety Net unneeded NCS, if it works correctly, looks like it's a step in the right direction. In effect, create a class of service that has the right to bump non-qualified calls from any wireless network. One problem I can see, though, is how to make sure that only first responders and their leadership get them, rather than every current and ex-politician with a little pull. | |
| | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:1 | Re: National networks and cellphones make Safety Net unneeded said by jophan:One problem I can see, though, is how to make sure that only first responders and their leadership get them, rather than every current and ex-politician with a little pull. The guidelines are fairly straightforward about qualifications, but ultimately, the decision of who gets service boils down to DHS and the NCS.
Priority 1. Executive Leadership and Policy Makers
Priority 2. Disaster Response/Military Command and Control
Priority 3. Public Health, Safety and Law Enforcement Command
Priority 4. Public Services/Utilities and Public Welfare
Priority 5. Disaster Recovery | |
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| | ThrowDemsOutIf you can't convince 'em, confuse 'emPremium
join:2002-03-03
Mullica Hill, NJ
kudos:4 | Yes, exactly. Thanks for link. | |
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|  TransmasterDon't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY | said by ThrowDemsOut:Is a national safety network really needed? National cellphone coverage and ubiquitous usage of cellphones makes the need for a National Cellphone Network a low priority. Maybe all that is needed are special cellphones that have priority over other calls when usage is high - like during a disaster. Well on the face of it this sounds good but as has been proven many. many times the reality is something else entirely different. In the face of natural disaster one of the first thing that fails is the cell phone system, from damage, or a lack of capacity, or a combination of both. For all of the coverage what is there is amazingly fragile. Back in the day of land mobile telephones the individual transceiver sites where built with gigantic power backups, redundancy and where built to take a great deal. Not so cell sites. Add to this Cities and counties getting sold a bill of goods by various communication providers putting in systems that make it hard for a Policemen to talk to a fireman, and the fireman to a Sheriff. Once they start to do this they soon realize there is no money to build out a system as it should be, and then maintain what they have. Here in Cheyenne the Fire department put in a Motorola trunked com system, the rest of the Cheyenne public service departments did not, no money. I have listened while irritated Cop's unable to talk to the fire department had to resort to their personal cell phones to get through to them. Right now the only national emergency network that works no matter what is the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service. Those of us who are members of RACES are considered first responders by the Department of Home Land Security. We practice and are adept in the installation, and activation of wide area networks in a matter of hours. It is the hamradio operator tagging along with the public emergency service worker that can get through with voice or one of the digital modes anytime any place, and you can't beat the price, we maintain our own equipment, and will work for food.  Of course we bring that along too if needed. 
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I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.
- Mark Twain in Eruption | |
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 ffblackieYou called 911 for this?Premium
join:2002-01-13
Knoxville, TN
 ·Comcast
| Did anyone ask the emergency responders? The firefighters don't want to talk to the police.
The police don't want to talk to the firefighters.
The entire topic of 'true national public safety network' will never, ever be fulfilled.
Too many players. Too many different (and incompatible) technoligies. Too many communities that have spent money on their systems and don't want to flush it down the tubes to give control to the 'guvernment'.
Yes - the technology should exist and be in place that allows certain groups of emergency responders to interact over the radio in certain situations, but as an every day occurence? No thanks...
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Thanks to Darwinism, I'll always have a job... | Proudly serving since 1997 | |
|  MurdocPremium
join:2009-02-08
Manitowoc, WI | is this another reincarnation of ebs like on tv? If it is they can stick that annoying crap up there you know whats! | |
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