Canada needs to make moves on building a national public safety broadband network (PSBN) to facilitate the work of first responders, experts tell The Wire Report.

Head cheerleader for the idea is Ibrahim Gedeon, formerly chief technology officer for Telus Corp. and now executive director of Guardian-SafetyNet, a non-profit group lobbying for the deployment of a fibre network that would upgrade the services of emergency response crews.

First responders typically use commercial and government-owned cellular and data networks when offering assistance during emergencies. Gedeon wants to see the rollout of a dedicated network that would take the pressure off the current system.

 “Our first responders that are there to save lives, all they can do is text and audio,” he notes. “They’re 10 to 15 years behind.”

The topic has been raised in Canada in the past but has not seen much concrete action. Public Safety Canada sent a notice out in 2021 seeking input on the matter and in 2022 published a report. It notes on its webpage that establishing a public safety broad network is “an initiative that has been in discussion for several years.

“The transition to a [public safety broadband network] will be complex and will require all levels of government to support its development. Continued collaboration among all levels of government, industry and end users is essential to develop a network that meets the diverse expectations and interests of stakeholders,” Public Safety said.

The advent of more adverse conditions, such as wildfires, has convinced those in the industry that action must be taken sooner rather than later.

The Department of Public Safety reached out to stakeholders about the efficacy of a PSBN. From last August to October, it sought input from interested parties. It received 38 submissions that totaled more than 880 pages. A final report was issued in March.

“A nationwide PSBN in Canada would support seamless coordination across agencies and jurisdictions, ensuring that emergency services can operate efficiently, even during the most high-pressure incidents,” the ministry wrote. “The PSBN would enable the adoption of innovative technologies and applications that strengthen emergency response and improve outcomes for Canadians.”

Backing up the former Telus CTO is Tony Ventura, IT director of the Peel Regional Police force, located just outside of Toronto. He says using existing commercial grids can be fraught with problems.

“If we’re looking for a lost child or somebody who might be wandering through the bush or a ravine or a forest, those are typically areas which aren’t very well covered with cellular coverage,” he states. “So because of that we lose communication, which is problematic.”

While remote regions are a concern, problems also arise in dense areas.

“We are competing on a commercial network for the same resources that the regular general public are using,” Ventura explains. “So we might be at a protest trying to fly a drone to do crowd control and people are Tweeting and sending pictures and texting and video calling, and we’re all competing for the same limited bandwidth.”

Such operations use incredibly large amounts of data, he adds, boosting the costs of subscribing to commercial carriers. The Peel police uses a multicarrier model and also deploys its own private network for data. The footprint for the coverage is 98 to 99 per cent of the district, he says.

Gedeon wants to see private networks such as Peel’s expanded on a national scale. In an op-ed for The Wire Report, he said such a grid would permit law enforcement to offer improved services.

“Existing legacy public safety networks are costly systems that are challenging to manage, and require more spectrum to utilize modern technology,” he wrote. “This means that these legacy PSBNs are voice-only (no video) networks that lack interoperability between different public safety agencies.”

That last point is endorsed by Ericsson AB. The spokesperson for its Canadian operations notes an example when one Ontario community outside of Ottawa could not communicate with medical helicopters. The province is served by the Ornge Air Ambulance system.

“First responders in Renfrew couldn’t speak to Ornge,” Nathan Gibson reports.

Ericsson was involved with the rollout of the FirstNet PSBN in the United States, working hand-in-hand with AT&T Inc. Current Ericsson Canada CTO Tania Leppert notes in addition to increased public safety, both companies experienced job creation. That was a good side effect, she adds.

Lippert’s predecessor, Yasir Hussain, urged the development of a Canadian counterpart to FirstNet at an address to the Canadian Telecom Summit in 2023.

“First responders don’t just walk around with pagers and walkie-talkies,” he explained to The Wire Report at the time. 

Ericsson took part in the Department of Public Safety consultation. It hasn’t seen a change in goals but foresees a ramping up of possibilities.

“The voice system is doing well today, that covers the basics, but I think it’s a lot very much up to the dialogue that we can have with the communities and the different public safety agencies in terms of what kinds of use cases they would see being most beneficial to them,” Leppert opines.

Peel Police have been very active in the fight for a PSBN, going as far as hiring the lobbying firm NorthGuide to state its case to the federal government. The force’s Ventura says any network will have to be judged on its affordability, its resiliency, and its redundancy.

ppark@thewirereport.ca