Motorola, TIA Ask FCC to Approve 700 MHz Waiver Requests

Motorola asked the FCC to impose only minimal conditions on waivers granted to local governments and public safety agencies seeking to make early use of 700 MHz spectrum. TIA said the FCC should assure any systems built using a waiver are interoperable. The Public Safety Bureau last month requested comment on the report of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council’s Broadband Task Force (BBTF), as well as the response of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust to the report. The bureau also asked for comments on the role of the report in moving toward a national interoperable public safety broadband network in the 700 MHz band.

Motorola said waivers should only be granted for the spectrum licensed to the PSST at 763-768/793-798 MHz, not for the narrowband 700 MHz spectrum (768-775/799-805 MHz). “The narrowband spectrum should be maintained to provide for a common band across the U.S. in which interoperable mission critical voice operations are being deployed,” the company said. The commission can assure quick, efficient deployment by setting forth “a limited number of key requirements that all networks should adhere to regarding technical standards and network functionalities,” it said: “The most essential condition to ensuring interoperability is that all proposed networks should be based on the Long Term Evolution radio access network standard” endorsed by leading public safety groups. “Beyond this, however, the Commission should only set minimal technical requirements upon the public safety broadband networks, as are required for interoperability,” Motorola said.

TIA said the FCC should allow the development of local public safety networks by granting the waivers, but should require that all buildouts comply with recommendations in the NPSTC report. They should also comply with requirements necessitated by the start of the FCC’s proposed Emergency Response Interoperability Center, TIA said. “TIA urges the Commission to develop policies that will ensure that regional networks seamlessly interoperate with a nationwide interoperable public safety wireless broadband communications network that delivers core requirements to first responders,” the group said. “As the National Broadband Plan makes clear, the United States simply has not seized the opportunity to protect the lives of first responders and all Americans through the deployment of a nationwide interoperable public safety wireless broadband communications network."

The District of Columbia, one of the applicants for a waiver, asked the FCC to grant the waiver requests with an eye on enhancing national interoperability. “If local networks were to comply with the BBTF Report’s recommendations, they would all be going in the same direction and providing valuable input for the development of that detailed interoperability standard, incorporating public safety requirements and resolving design issues, thereby saving public safety substantial cost and effort,” D.C. said. “However, the BBTF Report is general enough that disparate networks could comply with its requirements and still fall short of interoperability. … Networks built under waivers ought not be exceptions to the interoperability rule but instead should be real-life working systems built in compliance with the BBTF Report recommendations that help the Commission and the public safety community develop an interoperability standard that if enforced would ensure sustainable, interoperable public safety operations."

But IPWireless, a supplier of public safety broadband systems, said the NPSTC Broadband Task Force recommendations were made “in the context of longer term interoperability” and were not designed to be stipulations placed on waivers. “We also note that these recommendations are expected to further evolve and change as a result of the work of the Emergency Response Interoperability,” IPWireless said. “Therefore it would not be appropriate for what are essentially proposals at this time to become conditions of waivers.”