FCC RELEASES COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS ON NETWORK CAPACITY FOR NATIONWIDE MOBILE PUBLIC SAFETY BROADBAND NETWORK

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Endorsing this paper are Dave Farber, Dale Hatfield, Stagg Newman, Ed Thomas, and Bob Powers, all former FCC  Chief 
Technologists or FCC OET Chiefs.

The paper is at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-298799A1.pdf

FCC RELEASES COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS ON NETWORK CAPACITY FOR NATIONWIDE MOBILE PUBLIC SAFETY BROADBAND NETWORK

Washington, D.C. -- The Federal Communications Commission today released a comprehensive white paper which provides the 
capacity analysis behind the National Broadband Plan recommendations for the deployment and operation of a nationwide 
4G wireless public safety network that allows first responders to seamlessly communicate across geographies and 
agencies, regardless of devices.
The white paper, titled: “The Public Safety Nationwide Interoperable Broadband Network, A New Model For Capacity, 
Performance and Cost”, shows that the 10 MHz of dedicated spectrum currently allocated to public safety will provide 
the capacity and performance necessary for day-to-day communications and serious emergency situations. One study cited 
in the white paper shows that 10 MHz of spectrum can yield the same capacity as over 160 MHz if the correct technology, 
architecture, and devices are used. As part of this analysis, the FCC examined two real life events, the Minneapolis 
Bridge Collapse and Hurricane Ike hitting Houston, and additional empirical data which supports this conclusion.

“Our goal is to bring true interoperable mobile broadband communications to America’s first responders,” said Jamie 
Barnett, Chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB). “The FCC study shows how we can 
maximize capacity, performance, reliability and resiliency of public safety broadband communications even in the most 
extraordinary emergencies when life-saving response efforts are underway and communications demands are at their peak.”

For the worst emergencies, the FCC has devised an innovative concept of priority access and roaming across the 
commercial broadband wireless spectrum that will make at least 50 or 60 MHz of additional spectrum immediately 
available to public safety. The white paper describes how 10, 20 or even 30 MHz of additional dedicated spectrum may 
not be sufficient to support public safety broadband communications in a major emergency, and how the priority access 
and roaming exceeds the public safety spectrum that would otherwise be available. Moreover, it provides public safety 
with dependability and back up support, which does not exist with a purely dedicated network.

Barnett noted, “The key is capacity. Spectrum is only one factor. This plan provides extraordinary capacity to public 
safety, first with a dedicated network, backed with first-in-line privileges for public safety. This plan is like 
providing public safety with its own expandable, high speed lane, and it is a cost- effective investment in a national 
asset. Merely allocating an additional 10 MHz to public safety would be like building a separate, stand-alone highway 
system, and one so expensive that it would not even reach every community in America for years.”

This paper was 

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