Government Technology - December 2008 - (Page DC8)

PHOTO BY ANJANETTE STAYTEN/FEMA NEWS PHOTO Today’s emergency responders use several communications devices, which are often tailored to the constituencies they serve. Thus, ﬁre responder radios are built to ensure that their equipment doesn’t generate electrical sparks; this makes them safe to use during gas leaks. Although municipal CIOs and public safety leaders have welcomed reserving a band for interoperable public safety communications, details have proven hard to nail down. With the proceeding dragging into its third year, public safety representatives — frustrated with the lack of signiﬁcant progress and faced with the daily difﬁculties associated with many noninterconnected systems — have begun to organize and weigh in. Many of them believe the 700 MHz band could potentially let them upgrade existing infrastructures — adding services, applications, speed and interoperability in one swoop. For municipalities seeking to transition from analog systems to digital networks, the 700 MHz band provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity for an across-the-board upgrade. are built to ensure that their equipment doesn’t generate electrical sparks; this makes them safe to use during gas leaks. Though this is obviously necessary, problems arise, for example, when ﬁ re responder and police radios that operate on different systems can’t communicate effectively with each other. Michelle Geddes, interoperability program manager of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management, said two major challenges exist: voice interoperability and data operability. To facilitate this, Project 25 (P25) was created to develop interoperable, digital communications standards for emergency responders. “In terms of voice communications, the P25 standards are just being ratiﬁed, and a standards-based product is slowly coming to market,” Geddes said. “The cost for the P25 technology is still extremely high, most likely due to the small market for these systems, making it ﬁnancially difﬁcult for municipalities to afford these networks.” But once the affordable hardware is available, there’s still the problem of accessing public airwaves. According to Geddes, the 700 MHz public safety proceedings are supposed to solve the problem that “municipalities don’t have a viable spectrum option to deploy ubiquitous wireless broadband systems within their jurisdictions.” Currently municipalities tend to get by with the creation of systems kludged together from suboptimal spectrum bands — usually 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (i.e., Wi-Fi) and 4.9 GHz public safety bands. The quick rule of thumb is that the higher the frequency, the worse the propagation characteristics. Therefore, the 700 MHz band offers superior connectivity over distances and through barriers that Wi-Fi could never reach. Experts familiar with the technology say that 700 MHz networks may need only 25 percent of the base stations that are needed for ubiquitous coverage at higher frequencies. The 700 MHz bands that the FCC attempted to auction (758-763 MHz and 788-793 MHz) were used for over-the-air TV channels 62 and 67. With the digital TV transition — all TV over-the-air Existing Emergency Response Networks’ Challenges Today’s emergency responders use several communications devices, which are often tailored to the constituencies they serve. Thus, ﬁre responder radios 8 DIGITAL COMMUNITIES DECEMBER 08

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - December 2008

Government Technology - December 2008 Contents Point of View Four Questions for... On the Scene Big Picture Year in Review Who Controls Your Network? Paper Makes a Comeback Halting Meth Abuse Spectrum Up Close signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Becoming a Digital Community Rethinking 700 MHz Smart Grids: Powering the Future Gearing Up for Crime 2.0 Software Predicts Crime Local Portals on the Red Carpet More Than Just a Pretty Face

Government Technology - December 2008

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