Spectrum harmonization with the U.S. to determine more public safety access to 700 MHz band

The public safety sector's access to more 700 MHz spectrum may hinge on a coming policy decision in the United States. Analysts say Industry Canada is likely to harmonize with policy in the U.S., where regulators are considering whether to give the public safety sector a larger chunk of the 700 MHz band. “In the border areas, you have to share the spectrum between the two countries. It’s a lot easier to do that if everyone’s operating on common standards like we do with television and FM radio, where we are all using the same equipment and spectrum,” Wayne Stacey, a spectrum expert at Wayne A. Stacey & Associates, said in an interview. The Aug. 30 deadline for the shift from analog to digital television broadcasting will free up much of the valuable "beach front" 700 MHz spectrum band. Canada’s public safety and security sector is asking for an additional 20 MHz from the band, notes Industry Canada’s consultation document for the band, released last November. Public safety has already been allotted 24 MHz of spectrum from the 700 MHz band. “The U.S. harmonization question will arise if the public safety people in this country were to get a larger chunk of spectrum than the 24 MHz they already have. Then will the U.S. go in the same direction by providing additional spectrum for public safety?” Stacey said. “If they don’t, we are in one of those situations where we may have a unique band here while the Americans are going about it a different way.” Canada has up to now adopted harmonized spectrum allocations with the U.S., allowing for more widely available and functional equipment and easy international roaming, Industry Canada said in its report. The U.S. leased most of its 700 MHz spectrum in 2008, but one block (758-763/788-793 MHz), which was originally required to have both public safety and private ownership uses, was not licensed because none of the bids met the auction’s reserve price. The failure to licence the block has triggered interest in whether it will be auctioned as initially planned or set aside for public safety services, Industry Canada noted. But Industry Canada is expected to issue a decision on its policy for the 700 MHz band by the end of February. The department, which is consulting on the creation of a policy and technical framework for the band, may have to issue its decision before the U.S. The auction for the band will not be held until 2012. “The conventional wisdom is that wireless operators are sitting around waiting for this spectrum to become available,” Stacey said. “What the department has to deal with is whether, other than the 24 MHz that’s already set aside, there will be a further spectrum allocation .” Allocating more of the 700 MHz band to public safety uses will foster public good by helping to bring the best possible safety communications network to Canada and promoting the growth of the safety and security technology sector, John Reid, president of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA), said in an interview. “Industry Canada is holding the key to this. We have a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to take a portion of the spectrum and dedicate it to public safety and security.” He added: “We aren’t suggesting that all of the bandwidth go to public safety and security, but there is a benefit and public good in allocating some of it to public safety.” The CATA has been working with the security sector for several years and has learned that Canada does not have the necessary communications network in place to allow groups to communicate with each other in real time, particularly during an emergency situation where call volumes increase drastically, Reid said. “Communications between the agencies works very well as long as there is no emergency. It is not like the system is totally not working now. It just doesn’t work as well as it could in emergency situations. If you provision a dedicated chunk of this spectrum, you can have things work when you need it the most,” he said. Canada should aim for a broadband network with interoperability that enables different devices to communicate in real time, Reid said. “If you’re in emergency response, you’ll see real-time medical records. If you’re in fire service, you will see a picture of the burning building in real time .” There are also concerns about transporting secure information, such as medical histories, which under privacy regulations must be protected, Michael Sullivan, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs and Canada’s tri-services’ "Broadband for Public Safety" campaign, said in an interview. “Give us our own and that eliminates that issue,” Sullivan said. “We are looking to have this allocation go to public safety. We would have the rights to use it rather than vendors or telcos getting a hold of it and using it for their advantages, and us having to lease it back from them. “You can presume that when you look to the United States. The same is happening in the States, and the telcos have put in their offers to the FCC to have the spectrum allotted to their uses.” One of the benefits of aligning with the U.S. on the 700 MHz band is interoperability across the border, Sullivan said. “Fragmenting is not the way we want to go. We want to conglomerate everything so that if I’m deployed to another part of the country, my equipment will still work there because they are using 700 MHz spectrum.” Sullivan said he believes that a U.S. decision to auction its remaining spectrum instead of investing it in public safety would trigger a similar move in Canada. “If we can’t get alignment with the United States, which may go in another direction because they have not settled on this either, we as a country aren’t big enough to produce equipment for just us. It’s not a big enough market,” he said. “If the United States decides not to give a larger spectrum allotment to its public safety sector, it's likely Canada won’t either.” asmith@thewirereport.ca

Spectrum harmonization with the U.S. to determine more public safety access to 700 MHz band

News | January 28, 2011

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