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Chief Johnson Testifies Before Congress about Communications Interoperability
IAFC On Scene: June 1, 2010 Calls for Allocation of D Block to Public Safety On May 27, Chief Jeff Johnson, IAFC president and chairman of the board, testified before the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation of the House Committee on Science and Technology about interoperability in public-safety communications. The hearing, chaired by Representative David Wu (D-OR), examined issues relating to the development of the P25 standards for Land Mobile Radio interoperability. In his testimony, Chief Johnson explained that interoperability is “the ability of public-safety service and support providers—law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, emergency management, public utilities, transportation and others—to communicate with staff from other responding agencies and to exchange real-time, authorized voice and/or data communications.” The P25 standards are designed to ensure a common standard of performance features and a common air interface to allow interoperability between radios produced by different manufacturers. While the IAFC supports the P25 standard, Chief Johnson emphasized the need to complete the P25 standards after more than 20 years of development. As part of his testimony, Chief Johnson urged Congress to allocate the D Block to public safety to facilitate the build-out of a nationwide public safety wireless broadband network. D Block refers to the 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band, which is adjacent to the 10 MHz of spectrum that is currently allocated to public safety for broadband use. The IAFC and other public-safety leadership organizations argue that we need 20 MHz to build a robust broadband network. Chief Johnson explained that, due to the Federal Communications Commission’s habit of parceling small amounts of spectrum for public safety’s use, current interoperability efforts “are building sideways connector roads to the main communications lanes.” Chief Johnson urged Congress to support the development of “a nationwide architecture, allowing all public safety to have the ability to communicate on one, major superhighway.” Realizing the D Block represents a one-time opportunity for public-safety organizations to obtain the spectrum necessary to develop a robust, nationwide, public-safety wireless broadband network, Chief Johnson recommends that IAFC members contact their U.S. Representatives and Senators in support of allocating the D Block to public safety. A draft letter has been created for your use and can be accessed from the IAFC’s Government Relations: Issues Information > Communications webpage. You can either fax or email this letter to your member of Congress or use this draft letter as talking points for meetings with your members of Congress and their staff. You can access Chief Johnson’s written testimony also from the IAFC’s Government Relations: Issues Information > Communications webpage. |
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