East Coast quake a stark reminder of communications challenges

Aug 25, 2011 5:27 PM, By Donny Jackson (donald.jackson@penton.com)

Early in 2010, public-safety officials conducted a press conference announcing unified support for Congress to pass legislation to reallocate the 700 MHz D Block to first responders, because additional broadband spectrum would be needed in emergencies. Almost simultaneously, a disastrous 7.0-magnitude earthquake ravaged Haiti, where recovery efforts continue.
This week — just days before lawmakers are scheduled to return to Capitol Hill and potentially consider legislation and funding for a 700 MHz broadband network for public safety — a 5.9-magnitude earthquake shook the East Coast, including Washington, D.C.

Are these just random coincidences? Probably, although more than few people have asked me, “Do you think someone upstairs is trying to tell us something?”

Regardless, the fact is that such events happen, with alarming regularity. Thankfully, the damage caused by this week’s East Coast earthquake was relatively minor, especially when compared to geological events in Haiti, Chile and Japan during the past 20 months.

Of course, no one knew this at the time, and everyone understandably wanted to know more. Commercial wireless networks lost no towers and remained operational, but they quickly were overloaded in the aftermath of the quake by the sheer volume of calls from people seeking to determine the safety of friends and family in the area. Many calls simply could not be completed.

Some lawmakers and FCC officials have advocated auctioning the D Block and establishing a system that would provide public-safety agencies access to commercial networks during times of emergency. But this week’s earthquake highlights the reason why such a strategy is flawed, said Sean Kirkendall, a spokesman for the Public Safety Alliance (PSA).

“This idea that [public safety is] going to roam onto commercial networks when we need them in critical incidents is ludicrous,” Kirkendall said.

It’s a scenario that public-safety officials know well and have been telling federal officials about for years — when big incidents happen, commercial wireless networks often are unavailable. Meanwhile, public-safety communications were maintained on dedicated land-mobile-radio networks, such as the one in Charlottesville, Va. — the epicenter of the earthquake.

Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner said LMRs were distributed to key decision-makers throughout the city’s government, so key lines of communications could be maintained as commercial wireless networks remained unreliable.

Werner has been outspoken in his support for D Block reallocation and the need for a public-safety broadband network, and this week’s event only reaffirmed his position.

“I don’t know what attention you need to get to get Congress on board to make this nationwide public-safety network happen, but the time is now,” Werner said. “It doesn’t get any more real or symbolic than the shock wave that hit [Tuesday]. … Aside from something being truly cataclysmic, I don’t know what else would do it.”

Hopefully, lawmakers don’t require a cataclysmic event to take action. While it legitimately could take time to iron out some details regarding funding, procurement and governance matters, this week’s earthquake should serve as a not-so-subtle reminder that the need for a dedicated public-safety broadband network is real and that the network’s deployment should not be delayed unnecessarily.

by Lightwave Staff
September 9, 2011

The Utilities Telecom Council (UTC) — an international trade association representing the information and communications technology (ICT) interests of electric, gas, and water utilities — has released a study that indicates utilities in the United States could spend at least $3.2 billion on telecommunications equipment and services in 2011. If achieved, this figure would be a 3% increase over estimated spending in 2010 and a 21% improvement over the estimated $2.64 billion utilities spent in 2009.

The study, Utilities Telecom Spending Market Forecast, attempts to estimate utility spending on transport networks, leased lines, land mobile radio, and other communications technologies. The study indicates that approximately $1 billion will go to advanced two-way metering and associated networking. This would represent approximately 32% of the total telecom outlay, the largest category recorded in the survey. Transport network technologies such as fiber, microwave, WiMAX would receive the second greatest share, about $813 million.

UTC says the study indicates that wireless communications is the hottest technology among utilities. The study indicates spending on wireless communications as a percentage of overall telecom budgets could double over the next five years, from 28% in 2011 to 50% in 2016.

“The vast majority of utilities perform their own telecom operations, particularly now as smart grid technologies fuel the modernization of the nation’s energy grid,” Connie Durcsak, president and CEO of UTC, said. “Our study once again confirms that utilities are important players in the telecommunications world, investing billions of dollars annually to build communications infrastructures that ensure efficient, reliable, and safe delivery of critical utility services to all Americans.”

Utilities Telecom Spending Market Forecast presents extensive data on the types of telecom equipment and services utilities purchase as well as the purchasing process for communications-related equipment and services.  The study’s report presents statistics on the key factors that lead utility technologists to purchase particular vendors’ products and services as well as individual vendor satisfaction ratings by the survey respondents.

Sponsored by Harris Corp., the nearly 60-page Utilities Telecom Spending Market Forecast is available to UTC’s core utility members at no charge. UTC associate members and non-members can purchase the report via the UTC’s online store

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The permit was needed to allow the Throwbot to broadcast video data in the 430-448MHz zone of the 420-450MHz band. That spectrum goes primarily to the Federal Radiolocation service (radar), then secondarily to amateur services. Potential interference with those uses is the issue here.