[RTC List] {Disarmed} Local public safety telecommunications

[CrawfordCA at aol.com]

To the RTC list  ...
 
If this is not of interest to you, please forgive the intrusion, but Tina  
Nerat's excellent Tech Beat article today in the TS (albeit one day late),  
addresses the need to examine local public safety telecommunications. For those  
with a deeper interest in this topic, the Feds are moving ahead of a separate  
wireless channel (700 MHz) that is intended to promote "interoperability," the 
 ability for all public safety agencies to communicate with one another. That 
is  not currently the case here in Humboldt.
 
The Office of Homeland Security is offering significant grants to public  
agencies pursuing local interoperability.
 
The Government Technology Magazine article speaks to some of these  issues.
 
Chris Crawford
_www.justiceserved.com_ (http://www.justiceserved.com) 
 
 
````````````````````````````````
Direct link:
_http://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/128168?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=em
ail&utm_campaign=GTEN_2007_7_31_ 
(http://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/128168?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GTEN_2007_7_31) 
 
 
FCC Revises 700 MHz Rules to Advance Interoperable Public  Safety 
Communications and Promote Wireless Broadband Deployment
 


Jul 31, 2007, News Report  
Government Technology Magazine 
In a Second Report & Order (Order) adopted today, the Federal  Communications 
Commission (FCC) revised the 700 MHz band plan and service rules  to promote 
the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband network for  public 
safety and to facilitate the availability of new and innovative wireless  broadband 
services for consumers.

The 700 MHz Band spectrum, which runs  from 698-806 MHz, currently is 
occupied by television broadcasters and will be  made available for other wireless 
services, including public safety and  commercial services, as a result of the 
digital television (DTV) transition. The  Digital Television and Public Safety 
Act of 2005 (DTV Act) set a firm deadline  of February 17, 2009, for the 
completion of the DTV transition. The DTV Act also  requires the FCC to commence an 
auction of the previously unauctioned commercial  spectrum in the 700 MHz 
Band no later than January 28, 2008.

In  implementing Congress' directive to reallocate the airwaves, the 
Commission is  focused on serving the public interest and the American people. The 
service  rules the Commission adopts today help create a national broadband 
network for  public safety that will address the interoperability problems of 
today's system,  provide for a more open wireless platform that will facilitate 
innovation and  investment, and facilitate the emergence of next generation 
wireless broadband  services in both urban and rural areas. 

Today's Order establishes a  framework for a 700 MHz Public Safety/Private 
Partnership between the licensee  for one of the commercial spectrum blocks and 
the licensee for the public safety  broadband spectrum. As part of the 
Partnership, the commercial licensee will  build out a nationwide, interoperable 
broadband network for the use of public  safety. This network will facilitate 
effective communications among first  responders not just in emergencies, but as 
part of cooperative communications  plans that will enable first responders 
from different disciplines, such as  police and fire departments, and 
jurisdictions to work together in emergency  preparedness and response. Under the 
Partnership, the Public Safety Broadband  Licensee will have priority access to the 
commercial spectrum in times of  emergency, and the commercial licensee will 
have preemptible, secondary access  to the public safety broadband spectrum. 
Many national and local public safety  organizations have expressed support for a 
public safety/private partnership  approach. Providing for shared 
infrastructure will help achieve significant cost  efficiencies while maximizing public 
safety's access to interoperable broadband  spectrum. 
In order to promote broadband competition and the development of innovative  
wireless services for consumers, today's Order also makes several changes to 
the  rules governing the commercial services portion of the 700 MHz Band. Most  
notably, the FCC determined that licensees for one of the spectrum blocks to 
be  auctioned -- the large, 22-megahertz Upper 700 MHz C Block -- will be 
required  to provide a platform that is more open to devices and applications. 
These  licensees will be required to allow customers, device manufacturers, 
third-party  application developers, and others to use any device or application of 
their  choice on their networks in this band, subject to certain conditions. 
The FCC  also adopted several changes to the 700 MHz band plan, the build-out  
requirements for licensees, and the auction procedures, as described  below.

_Click  here for more information._ 
(http://media.govtech.net/Digital_Publications_Art/Documents/700mhz_news_release_073107.pdf) 





************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at 
http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://redwoodtech.org/pipermail/list_redwoodtech.org/attachments/20070801/7d7373c2/attachment.html