Two Way Radio Directory – Blog

The primary reason we have poor interoperability in the United States has
nothing to do with the already available technology.
It is often the fault of Public Safety and government adminstrative people,
who understand very little about communications, being given the
responsibility for making decisions on what to buy, often with low price
being the primary deciding factor.
In Europe, central governments tend to mandate standardization for systems
such as Public Safety communications. In the U.S., often each local Sheriff
Andy and Fire Chief Bob makes the decisions.
It is a miracle that we have as much interoperability as we do in the U.S.
In many areas of North Carolina we have excellent interoperability because
dedicated groups of knowledgable individuals stood fast against the bean
counters and politicians. For some this has literally cost them their job.
The citizens will never know how well they have been served, quietly, in the
background.
Now, we have a wave of idiots who want to solve their budget problems by
axing real Public Safety communications projects in favor of free phones,
and monthly bills, never bothering to learn what Public Safety
communications actually does and why NONE of these commercial services can
do it.

What a load of mis-informing crap.
Which commercial carrier is bank-rolling this guy?
Like all the commercial carrier advocates he complete fails to address the
actual primary use of Public Safety communications – group dispatch. NO,
NONE, Nada, commercial carrier “solution” deals with this most basic
requirement of real Public Safety.
Tell the fireman in the burning building that his system is “designed
primarily for voice communications” when what he obviously needs is “other
capabilities such as high-speed data communications that can be used to send
text or images.” I am sure his widow will appreciate the photo.
I need to print this one so I can toss it in the real trash where it
belongs.

Rik Rasmussen

> Harnessing commercial systems
>
>
> BY Dr. Asif Naseem
> GoAhead Software
>
>
> Mobile Radio Technology
> September 1, 2004
>
>
> (Partial text)
>
>
> Traditionally, public-safety agencies have relied on private
> networks for communications during emergencies. Industry
> standards have greatly facilitated the development and deployment
> of networks that meet the stringent availability, reliability and
> security requirements expected of emergency communication systems.
>
> For example, Project 25, a standard supported by the Association
> of Public-Safety Communications Officials, provides a reliable
> and secure network for public-safety applications. Networks based
> on the Terrestrial Trunk Radio (TETRA) standard have been
> deployed by public-safety agencies in several European countries
> to provide reliable and secure communications to first responders
> and other emergency workers.
>
> However, public-safety officials recently have expressed
> increasing concern about the limitations of such aging
> technologies to meet the growing demands of emergency
> communication services. After Sept. 11, 2001, a great sense of
> urgency developed for different public-safety agencies to
> collaborate and coordinate their activities in emergencies.
>
> These agencies often use disparate networks with proprietary
> systems and devices that do not interoperate, thus making
> collaboration difficult, if not impossible.
>
> Furthermore, most of these systems are designed primarily for
> voice communications and lack other capabilities such as
> high-speed data communications that can be used to send text or
> images. Compounding the issue is the concern that there is not
> enough vendor support and innovation and, thus, such technologies
> are becoming capacity-limited and expensive to deploy.
>
> These concerns are causing public-safety agencies to look at
> alternative technologies, specifically those being deployed in
> commercial wireless communication systems. Based on widely
> adopted standards, commercial technologies such as CDMA and GSM
> offer several advantages.
>
> Full text of article:
> http://iwce-mrt.com/ar/radio_harnessing_commercial_systems/index.htm
>