How The Federal Government Can Help Communications Interoperability

Seamless radio communications is a necessary and achievable goal for our first responders. Natural disasters and acts of terrorism do not respect physical boundaries. And so, jurisdictional boundaries get crossed as well.  When they respond to an event, first responders from different agencies need to work together, and fast. To do this, they need a secure communications link. This almost always means radios. Cell phones have their place but in general, radio facilities are more hardened and therefore more likely to be operable following a major disaster. First responders also need a fast communications link. No delays merely because radio “A” is in one jurisdiction, and radio “B” in another. (The buzzwords are “seamless communications” and “interoperability”.) Seamless radio communications is the solution that gives first responders a fighting chance in a major disaster. Today’s communications technology makes seamless radio communications practical. A number of cities, counties and other agencies are already there.

However, we have to overcome two hurdles – an economic hurdle and a technical one – if seamless radio communications is to occur on more than a sporadic basis.

The economic hurdle. Unfortunately many of the radio systems that exist today are old, anything-but-seamless, and need to be replaced. But the new systems cost a lot more than the old ones and many cities and counties cannot afford to replace them. They’re strapped for cash, especially now.

Existing federal government grant programs do not provide nearly enough resources to make things happen quickly. It will take billions to replace old systems. Federal grant monies will always be limited. To be specific, the Homeland Security appropriations bill being drafted provides for a $50 million interoperability grant program despite Congress having authorized over $500 million a year for ten years.

The technical hurdle. Compatibility issues among different radio systems pose the greatest technical barrier to widespread adoption of interoperability:

• Radio systems using digital signals have varying digital modulation formats; and many of these do not provide  interoperability.

• Radio systems from different manufacturers cannot make use of each others channels, mainly because they do not employ a common trunking protocol.

The P-25 suite of standards exists to enable disparate systems to be linked together. However, no radio system is yet in full compliance with P-25 standards for signaling and trunking.

These hurdles can be overcome by offering federally-guaranteed, low-interest loans to local jurisdictions willing to replace their old radio systems with ones that are seamless and in full compliance with P-25 compatibility standards. We’re thinking of a low-interest loan program similar to what the federal government provides for small businesses and other targeted high-priority areas. For many jurisdictions, there may be no other practical way to fund a radio system replacement.

Reduces the economic hurdle without hurting the taxpayer. The Federal government simply cannot afford to provide grants at the level that would be required to replace or upgrade communications systems. A loan program would be self-supporting over time. As the loans are repaid, the incoming revenue stream could be the funding resource for new loans. This would enable more jurisdictions to replace or upgrade their systems more rapidly.

Provides a strong incentive to overcome remaining compatibility problems. With concentrated effort, radio manufacturers could fairly quickly overcome the remaining hurdles to full P-25 compliance. The prospect of the surge in business from a federal loan guarantee program should spur the industry to make faster progress toward full P-25  compliance.  Increased business might also provide economies of scale that could benefit both the manufacturer and the customer.

Getting federal support will be a challenge. We need your help.

A good idea is one thing; a good piece of federal legislation is another. To embody this idea effectively in law, we need the input of knowledgeable people who care about this issue. And are familiar with the technical, operational and political challenges.

We need your help crafting the legislation that would establish a federal loan guarantee program to foster radio interoperability among local jurisdictions. Our goal is to create a package that passes muster in time to present it to the Obama Administration and Congress.

We have already begun to seed the idea in Congress and there is some interest. Once we have a fully baked idea we can band together to go to our representatives to get their support.

But to do that it needs to be fully thought through and worked out. Along with legislation we need to establish the cost/benefit analysis that shows doing this is good government.

The first step is for us to start a dialogue. In the Forum area below please let us know what you think of the idea and how we can make it work. If you don’t like it please let us know why not and help us develop a better one – but not one that asks the government for more grant money –because that is not going to work.
We know the problems. It’s time for us to develop the solutions in partnership with our government.