MC LTE in USA
“This is a standards-compliant,
mission-centric solution that’s being
purpose built for public safety,”
says an AT&T spokesperson.
“It’s designed to further advance
first-responders’ communication
capabilities with reliable, highperformance
calling. We’ll have
more to share in the coming weeks
and months.”
AT&T’s main rival Verizon has
not taken this lying down and is
busy competing for public safety
agency subscriptions by also offering
priority and pre-emption voice and
data services. It also offers Motorola’s
Kodiak Networks carrier-integrated
PTT service, as well as a variety of
over-the-top (OTT) PTT service
providers such as ESChat. Sprint also
offers Kodiak.
T-Mobile has said that if its
proposed merger with Sprint is finally
approved, it will offer free 5G services
(once it has rolled out a 5G network)
to first-responders through its
Connecting Heroes Initiative. It has
not stated whether priority and preemption
services will be available or if
it intends to offer a 3GPP-compliant
MCPTT service.
This provides a scenario where
four (or three) carriers are, or will be,
offering MCPTT, carrier-integrated
PTT and OTT PTT services. Plenty
of choice for public safety agencies,
then. Some see this multiplicity of
choice as a good thing as it ensures
competition; others think it dilutes
the FirstNet ideal of a single,
nationwide mission-critical network
for all first-responders.
“I believe we should expect
multiple vendors providing Release
13-compliant MCPTT solutions in
2020 in the US,” says TJ Kennedy,
former president of FirstNet and now
one of the co-founders and principals
of The Public Safety Network
consultancy. “I am excited to see a
competitive marketplace.”
However, Poltermann worries
that this multiplicity of choice
may have consequences for the
public safety community. “We
face distinct challenges that other
nations won’t have. Because of the
lack of an integrated approach, the
agencies are free to choose whichever
communications method they
wish. This causes issues not only
for interoperability, but also from a
collective bargaining standpoint. This
lack of collective bargaining means
that the features public safety desires
may not be received.”
Certainly, FirstNet/AT&T will
need to offer a more attractive service
if it is to succeed in its ambitions
and stave off competition from other
rivals. A FirstNet spokesperson says:
“FirstNet is driving innovation in the
public safety broadband marketplace
in the United States. The network is
driving competition and choice, and
delivering dedicated public safety
services like pre-emption that did not
exist before FirstNet.
“We worked hand-in-hand with
the public safety community in
all 56 states and US territories
to understand their coverage and
capacity needs for the network. This
is unique to FirstNet.” And as the
spokesperson points out, it is still
early days. FirstNet is just “two years
into a five-year deployment based on
individualised state buildout plans,
and AT&T continues to be ahead
of schedule”.
Kennedy says: “The speed at which
this has been delivered across the
country has exceeded expectations.
It is an opportunity to leverage
open standard solutions to create
true operability for all public safety
communications by leveraging
MCPTT/Data/Video.”
Interoperability
Interoperability, or operability, as
Kennedy prefers to call it, is critical.
FirstNet was largely conceived
because of the interoperability issues
faced by public safety agencies
responding to the 9/11 attacks
when their different LMR networks
were unable to communicate with
each other.
But what does interoperability
mean here? Does it mean the
MCPTT, carrier-integrated PTT
and OTT PTT options available on
AT&T should be interoperable with
each other? Or that the MCPTT and
OTT PTT services offered by other
carriers should be interoperable with
AT&T’s FirstNet service: ie, have
access to the FirstNet secure core?
This is what lies at the heart of
the Boulder Regional Emergency
Telephone Service Authority
(BRETSA) petition to the FCC,
which has attracted support from
other jurisdictions, as well as Verizon
among others. BRETSA wants
the FCC to make a declaratory
ruling that FirstNet/AT&T should
provide access to the FirstNet core to
ensure operability between all firstresponders
who have chosen another
provider and want the freedom to
continue to do so. FirstNet and
AT&T oppose this and want the
petitions dismissed.
Kennedy observes that in the
FirstNet model, the RFP required
multiple mission-critical PTT
solutions to be made available on
FirstNet and to ensure there was full
operability across those solutions.
“This is an important element which
means that the MCPTT solutions
running on FirstNet will be tested
and operable with each other.
This also provides competition for
MCPTT services on FirstNet and
will drive innovation and competitive
pricing.” If this is the case then that
will ensure operability between PTT
Adobe Stock/Gorodenkoff
I believe we should expect multiple
vendors providing Release
13-compliant MCPTT solutions in
2020 in the US
March 2020 @CritCommsToday 23