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(509) 982-2181 Equipment sales (408) 907-6910 (Vonage) Consulting services 42846865 (icq) And I run my own wisp! 64.146.146.12 (net meeting) www.odessaoffice.com/wireless www.odessaoffice.com/marlon/cam ----- Original Message -----
From: New America Foundation
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 4:14 PM
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: New Report Calls for Fundamental Reform in
Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Communications Policy For Immediate
Release
Contact: Jerry
Irvine New Report Calls for Fundamental
Reform in Public Safety Spectrum Billions in federal investment in
emergency radio interoperability will be wasted without major reforms;
federal-level Integrated Wireless Network plan called inefficient; IWN should
either be opened to state and local first responders or terminated, says
academic expert WASHINGTON (October 26) The United States must
fundamentally alter how spectrum is given to emergency agencies and how wireless
safety networks are built and managed before billions of dollars of new federal
investments in public safety interoperability are made in the next few years,
said Jon M. Peha, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Public Policy at
Carnegie Mellon University, in a report
for the New American Foundation released at a forum
earlier today. Unfortunately, policymakers seem likely to preserve the
antiquated status quo, thereby forfeiting an opportunity to make communications
failures less common, to use spectrum more efficiently, and to reduce the costs
borne by taxpayers, Peha said. Peha listed four sources of new federal
investment that he believes are at risk: ·
$3-to$30 billion on a brand new,
nationwide wireless radio system (IWN) for federal first responders;
·
24 MHz of cleared, new spectrum,
worth $5-to-$10 billion; ·
$1 billion in set-aside funds for
interoperability, to be taken from the auction of adjacent spectrum to
commercial users; and ·
Hundreds of millions of dollars
annually in homeland security grants for interoperability to state and local
agencies. Peha said IWN should be cancelled unless state and local
agencies are added to it. There is no reason to invest billions of
taxpayer dollars in a network that serves only federal first responders, when a
vast majority of first responders work for state and local agencies, he
concluded. A panel of experts assembled at todays forum concurred
that major changes are needed. Peha attacked four key assumptions that he said underlie
the huge problems faced by public safety wireless
systems: ·
Primary responsibility for
emergency communications systems can no longer reside with tens of thousands of
individual agencies and communities. Networks must be designed at national
or regional levels. ·
It is not necessary that public
safety run its own systems; there are circumstances in which it is efficient to
utilize commercial systems as well. ·
Public safety insists on
functioning in spectrum devoted solely to public safety, using equipment
entirely dedicated to public safety. We should consider making some spectrum
available to public safety on a priority basis when needed, but available to
commercial users most of the time. ·
Voice communications can no longer
be the sole object of public safety radio. There is a wealth of
information available to responders and their agencies if only they could
connect to it with wireless and fixed broadband. Management of new public safety allocations in the 700
MHz band was the primary topic of discussion at todays forum. Currently, this
new spectrum is set to be managed under the same assumptions and orthodoxies as
current public safety spectrum allocationsin which spectrum and equipment are
designated exclusively for public safety; management is highly decentralized,
without national or regional coordination; and narrowband voice communication is
the principal application. Peha argued that reforms could include some combination
of: moving toward a consistent nationwide network architecture, allowing
commercial carriers to operate public safety networks, and making greater use of
shared municipal and commercial broadband wireless and wired networks for data
applications. Other panelists debated alternative proposals for public
safety spectrum reform. Michael Gottdenker, CEO of Access
Spectrum, described an incremental approach to reorganize
newly-allocated public safety bands to promote efficient use of spectrum, while
Morgan OBrien, CEO of Cyren Call and co-founder of Nextel, outlined
his more radical proposal to use 30 MHz of returned TV band spectrum to build a
shared commercial/public safety network, rather than auctioning it to the
highest bidders. Other panelists, including David Aylward, Director of
COMCARE Emergency Response
Alliance, and
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