Public Works Magazine...May 2012
The new First Responders
Network Authority (FirstNet) being
set up within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration--it
won't be up and running for years--may offer access to public works
departments. But that access is far from guaranteed.
Very little has been settled with regard
to how FirstNet will operate. A 15-person board will run the system, three of
them top federal officials (Secretary of Homeland Security, Attorney General
and Director of the Office of Management and Budget) and the remainder
appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. The Board is suppose to start
functioning in August. Even after the FirstNet Board is appointed, it will take
a year or so for it to work out the rules on who will have access to the 20
megaherz in the D-Block band spectrum which Congress set aside for this new
national, interoperable public safety broadband network.
The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job
Creation Act of 2012 that Congress passed in February
mandates that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction off the
unused spectrum in the 700 MHz D Block band and use $7 billion of the money
raised to fund construction of the FirstNet infrastructure, which will consist
of new and existing cell towers, and maybe some fiber and microwave
connections. Those auction dollars will
not be forthcoming immediately. That is why the Middle Class legislation included
a provision allowing FirstNet to borrow $2 billion from the U.S. Treasury for
immediate, start-up needs. The bill also cleared $115 million for state
planning grants.
Here is why Congress created FirstNet.
Police departments rely principally
on two-way voice radios to communicate. This technology is extremely limited.
It cannot exchange electronic data or video. Moreover, disparate spectrum and
aging technologies prevent first responders (which under most local scenarios
include fire and emergency medical services, but not public works) from
attaining truly nationwide seamless interoperable communications. Broadband on
700 MHz band spectrum will allow seamless interoperability on all levels,
local, state, and federal.
Harlin McEwen, Chairman
of the Communications & Technology Committee at the International
Association of Chiefs of Police, had considerable input into the fashioning of
the FirstNet legislation. He says the question of whether public works
departments will have access to FirstNet spectrum is unanswerable this early in
the game. "But I believe that is the correct approach and a good idea,
that is broader participation beyond first responders to critical
infrastructure, transportation, utility and public works departments," he
states.
He adds, "Police, fire and emergency
medical services will manage the resource. They must have access to the
necessary bandwidth. But if you manage it right, all of these other agencies
which are often involved in supporting those kinds of incidents, it only makes
sense that they somehow be included in the plan. But it is too early to
know."
Part of the reason it is too early to know
is that the FirstNet legislation allows states to opt-out of participating in
the deployment of the national network and to instead submit a state proposal
for deployment, which would have to meet federal architecture and technical
standards nevertheless. This "opt-out" provision probably was
inserted out of deference to the wishes of the National Governors Association.
In a letter to members of Congress as the final version of the bill was jelling
in January, the NGA said:
"Restricting a state’s ability to determine network subscribers
could have a detrimental impact on the success of the network and its long-term
sustainability."
In terms of the infrastructure of the
network, the legislation calls for a core network and a radio access network.
The first consists of national and regional data centers and the like, which
provide connectivity between the radio access network and the public Internet
or public switched network, or both. The radio access network encompasses the cell
site equipment, antennas and backhaul equipment. Asked whether city and county
facilities or property could be used to build this infrastructure, requiring
some involvement by public works departments, Ed McFadden, Executive Director,
External Communications at Verizon, says what everyone else seems to be saying,
"No one knows."
