Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) and the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) Host Webinar for all Statewide Interoperability Coordinators (SWICs) to Discuss the 4.9 GHz Spectrum

Las Vegas, Nevada – The Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) and the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) recently hosted a webinar for all Statewide Interoperability Coordinators (SWICs) to discuss the 4.9 GHz spectrum. Chief Jeff Johnson (Ret), Chief Chris Moore, and Police Director and Deputy Executive Director of the PSBTA Michael Barnbeck spoke to the operational and technical advantages of a nationwide coordinated governance model of the 4.9 GHz spectrum for public safety.

On September 30, 2020, the prior Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to take the 4.9 GHz spectrum away from public safety and give it to the states. Under that order, each state would have been allowed to lease the 4.9 GHz spectrum to third parties, permitting the licensee to determine, on a state-by-state basis, whether public safety agencies would even be permitted to continue to operate in the band. The order ceded total control of the 4.9 GHz Band to each of the states without any guidelines, rules, requirements, or guidance regarding either general management and use of the spectrum, or, more importantly, to ensure the protection of public safety’s use of the band. “On behalf of public safety, the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) took the lead to challenge this action by filing both a Petition for Stay, as well as a Petition for Reconsideration to the Commission. After review, the FCC granted both petitions,” shared Chief Johnson.

Since then, the PSSA and the public safety community have worked with the FCC to re-envision a new regulatory framework to increase nationwide utilization of the 4.9 GHz band, maximize the benefit for public safety, while also preserving incumbent operations. “Overwhelmingly, America’s public safety community supports FCC reforms to harness the 4.9 GHz spectrum to meet public safety’s growing need for dedicated 5G broadband. 5G technology promises new tools and capabilities for first responders,” said Chief Moore. 

Another Important distinction covered during the webinar was understanding the difference between the technologies. “Current Wireless Priority Service (WPS) only applies to voice calls, not data. WPS does not preempt other users/calls already on their commercial networks, it only enables them to receive calling que priority. To reiterate, there is not a dedicated core for public safety on these commercial networks. The simple reason WPS does not put first responder voice calls first: It was never designed, nor intended, to do so. WPS was created in support of an executive order to ensure that the United States President and their staff had the ability to communicate via voice over any network during a time of crisis. It has five levels of priority, of which public safety is third,” said Director Barnbeck.

In contrast, FirstNet was built not only for voice calls, but all forms of first responder broadband traffic on a dedicated core for public safety. FirstNet has priority access to all of AT&T’s commercial spectrum, and specifically to Band 14 which is dedicated to first responder use. This is why AT&T cellular towers have two network IDs — one for FirstNet and the other for AT&T commercial side. All of this supports voice and data traffic for FirstNet, whereas WPS only supports voice with limited priority for first responders. “FirstNet provides the essential bandwidth its users need versus WPS provides ‘best effort’”, reiterated Barnbeck.

The three speakers spoke about the importance of the 4.9 GHZ public safety spectrum residing with the FirstNet Authority (FNA) to create a sustainable business model that gives public safety access to affordable services. “The FNA already has a sustainable business model with FirstNet. If it is left up to various government entities to build out, we are dealing with cost and sustainability problems of bifurcated networks again. Smaller communities with limited budgets would be unable to build out and sustain 4.9 networks, which would greatly limit access of users and devices. A nationwide 4.9 network plan allows for future growth and innovation, open standards and flexibility, and no proprietary technology,” said Chief Johnson. 

The PSSA proposal seeks to represent and protect public safety via these three key principles: (1) Preserve the spectrum for public safety; (2) Protect incumbent users operating in the band; and (3) Make the 4.9 GHz spectrum available to the First Responder Network Authority for nationwide 5G deployment on the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (FirstNet). For more information about the PSSA proposal and position, please visit: www.thepssa.org. 

PSBTA (www.thepsbta.org)

The Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) is an organization focused exclusively on ensuring the success of the entire FirstNet ecosystem that includes the legal entity created by Congress, the network infrastructure, hardware and software, and the single most vital component—the end users.

For more information, please contact info@thepsbta.org