NENA Pitches Federal Fund for High-Cost Public Safety Networks

NENA called for “more predictable, reliable, and dedicated sources of funding for public safety’s broadband needs.” Traditional grant programs have limitations, and annual appropriations are unpredictable, it said. “Ensuring access to an annually recurring source of funding for public safety broadband networks, equipment and applications is essential. Just as the E-Rate program was established to ensure schools and libraries have access to the Internet, a similar program is needed to ensure a recurring source of funds is available for public safety broadband needs in high- cost areas.”

NENA is just starting the process of gathering support for its proposal for a dedicated public safety fund, and hopes to get other public safety groups on board, said CEO Brian Fontes in an interview. While the current economic climate can make it tough to gain support for new government spending, Fontes said it’s a “tradeoff that we as an American public need to make” to ensure public safety communications technology keeps up to date.

“Broadband could help bridge the technology and knowledge gaps between rural and urban public safety agencies,” said the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials in separate comments. Lack of broadband in rural areas holds back deployment of next- generation 911 services, APCO said. The problem “needs to be addressed through incentives and other regulatory provisions to promote wider broadband availability. Market forces alone are unlikely [to] provide broadband in those areas.”

More federal funding is needed for public safety broadband, said Motorola. “Many rural areas lack the resources to build broadband wireless networks and existing grant and loan programs are inadequate to fill the gap.” And public safety “was given short shrift” by requirements in the first round of NTIA/RUS broadband stimulus funding, the company said. “Even if NTIA’s BTOP program is amended as recommended, additional Federal funding mechanisms and assistance will be needed as the existing monies are insufficient to ensure nationwide broadband coverage.”

“Publicly offered 3G commercial networks are generally unavailable to public safety in rural areas,” said the Public Safety Spectrum Trust. “Although there are an extremely limited number of other options, such as municipal Wi-Fi (unlicensed) networks or mesh networks, these networks are few and far between. Moreover, these services lack key features such as mission-critical redundancy, reliability, public safety priority, data security, and wide-area nationwide coverage.”

NENA, APCO and PSST seek a national public safety network incorporating public-private partnerships. A national approach will “lead to ‘wider deployment, lower costs, better interoperability and greater efficiency’ than a series of small, balkanized networks,” PSST said. Infrastructure sharing through partnerships is key in rural areas where there’s only enough money to build one mobile wireless broadband network, it said.

PSST urged the FCC to grant waiver petitions filed by jurisdictions seeking to build their own networks using 700 MHz spectrum currently licensed to PSST. “Granting the waiver requests likely will lead to more-rapid public safety broadband deployment in those communities, including in certain rural areas that may not currently have access to any broadband services.” FCC approval could also speed development of the nationwide network, it said.

AT&T urged the FCC to erase “outdated regulatory impediments that deter wireline and wireless investment in rural areas.” Barriers include rights-of-way rules, regulation of IP services and existing universal service and intercarrier compensation rules, the carrier said. AT&T also urged a “leveraged approach” by which the commission would reallocate the 700 MHz D-Block to public safety and require use of the LTE standard, and public safety would use requests for proposals to contract construction of regional public safety networks.

Motorola also backed quick reallocation of the D-Block. Upping the amount of available spectrum reduces the number of base sites needed to provide broadband in an area, it said. “The need for fewer sites will reduce, but not eliminate, the amount of Federal grants that will be needed to ensure rural and tribal area coverage and help maximize the effective use of spectrum.”

AT&T said the commission shouldn’t “rely on proposals centered on unlicensed spectrum and WiFi technologies, 4.9 GHz band technologies, or satellite broadband technologies to meet public safety’s broadband needs.” Those approaches have “inherent deficiencies that render them insufficient for mission critical public safety communications,” it said. The 4.9 GHz band has limited propagation traits, restricting its range and preventing mobile operation, said APCO. Wi-Fi coverage is “spotty … and would not provide sufficient reliability, priority, or security for most public safety applications,” it said. And Wi-Fi isn’t interoperable with LTE, it added.

Unlicensed fixed-wireless networks and lightly-licensed fixed networks “already provide affordable cost-effective connectivity and Internet access for public safety facilities in some rural or tribal areas,” said the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. But WISPA said rural and tribal areas remain underserved due to high middle-mile and second-mile costs, and low population density.

Satellite can satisfy public safety broadband needs in rural and tribal areas, but public safety agencies must ensure their technical capabilities can be met by satellite before relying on it, said NENA. “In some instances satellite systems can provide a back-up option in case wireline or wireless broadband systems fail. In other instances, satellite systems may be the only broadband option available.” Inmarsat said satellite service is cheap, reliable and mobile, making it a “a key capability” for public safety in remote areas, and are a reliable backup when terrestrial networks “are degraded or unavailable.”

“The major drawbacks of satellite services are cost and line-of-sight limitations,” said APCO. “While open spaces in rural areas could be reached, the same cannot be said for inside buildings or in other obstructed areas. Until those factors are addressed, use of satellite services will be limited to command vehicles, and then only in communities with access to the necessary financial resources.”

In other comments, consumer advocates for the deaf said public safety answering points must be upgraded to support IP-based relay services. “It is imperative that PSAPs be enabled to receive and process such calls and receive” automatic number identification and automatic location identification information, said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Telecommunications Access said the National Broadband Plan “will be incomplete without a mechanism for making the PSAPs themselves broadband-capable for purposes of direct communications with the public in multiple media forms (voice, text, and video).”