Urgent Communications Tech Talk

In This Issue

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Talking Points

FCC must keep NG-911-ready PSAPs from becoming wallflowers

It was encouraging to hear this week that progress toward next-generation (NG-911) systems is being made, with some next-gen public-safety answering points (PSAPs) expected to be operational later this year.

Roger Hixson, technical issues director for the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), indicated last week at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) winter conference that testing of a full-fledged NG-911 system is expected to be done during the second quarter or early in the third quarter of this year, but he cautioned that not all of the work is done.

It also was interesting to hear that several states are already taking steps to make the transition to NG-911. For instance, as Senior Writer Donny Jackson reported yesterday, representatives from a handful of Virginia counties said they are prepared to have their NG-911 PSAPs operational this summer if interconnection agreements with phone companies can be reached. Read More

In the News

Patent pools seen as necessary to drive LTE cost certainty

The cost of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, the standard preferred by the public-safety community for a nationwide mobile broadband network, will be heavily influenced by the price of intellectual property rights licensing, but a slew of entities are working to create patent pools designed to bring more predictable costs to the LTE world. Read More

In Print

Efficiency consistency

While much of the news coming out of the FCC lately seems to be centered on emerging broadband communications, the commission's narrowbanding deadlines affecting land-mobile radio users in the UHF and VHF bands are approaching rapidly without much fanfare. Are you prepared to meet these requirements? If not, your agency may not be able to fully communicate within the next one to three years. Read More

On the Web

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