A surprise move in Geneva has boosted efforts to find broadband channels for critical communications. Jeppe Jepsen reports on progress in Europe and around the world

Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) responders provide us with indispensable police, fire and other emergency services.

Each individual in our society has growing expectations of, and the right to, timely assistance from emergency services. In turn, society expects that governments will use the necessary resources to aid those in emergency need. The provision of emergency services extends beyond the social contract and invokes a moral obligation to protect life, welfare, and property. 

Broadband wireless access is considered essential to the future of our society at large. In Europe there is a general political drive to close the digital divide – not only through cable and wires, but also through wireless means.

The mobile network operators are driving broadband access and UMTS/HSPA/LTE technologies are being deployed in the public networks. Spectrum is harmonized for the public access services and the digital dividend allocation 790–862?MHz will ensure the benefit of harmonization to consumers and enterprises. The promise is access to the Internet everywhere, at any time.

The Internet Protocol (IP) has enabled both the Internet and the corporate intranet. These have become an everyday necessity. Organizations increasingly use both, but only an intranet connection gives security managers control over their own network; it allows them to manage reliability and availability and avoid harmful network attacks.

Separate spectrum

Dedicated spectrum would enable PPDR organizations to build their own wireless intranet. Such spectrum should be allocated separately to meet their needs before arrangements are made to sell off (auction) the remaining spectrum to the commercial sector.

A number of recent developments are worth noting.

The European Commission has obtained full adoption in Parliament and Council of its Radio Spectrum Policy Programme (RSPP), which is now a legally binding set of policy objectives regarding spectrum regulation in the European Union. The RSPP was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on March 21.

The RSPP instructs the EU Commission to seek an EU-harmonized solution to PPDR spectrum needs and is a forceful tool in the successful completion of these efforts across all member states of the EU. 

The 2012 World Radio Conference (WRC) held in Geneva, Switzerland (January 23 – February 17, 2012) adopted resolutions relevant to IMT/PPDR. 

The general expectation prior to the conference was that a potential second digital dividend would be discussed after the next WRC in 2015. But to the surprise of most delegates, a request originating from the Middle East and Africa sub-region resulted at the end of the conference in a resolution “to allocate the frequency band 694–790 MHz in Region?1 to the mobile, except aeronautical mobile, service on a co-primary basis with other services to which this band is allocated on a primary basis and to identify it for IMT; and – that
the allocation is effective immediately after WRC-15.”

Furthermore an agreement was made to review and revise Resolution 646 (Rev.WRC 12) for broadband PPDR.

Working on broadband

The TETRA + Critical Communications Association (TCCA) has held the first meetings of a new working group looking at broadband for critical communications. Its work is intended to take the concept of the Government Radio Network (GRN) one step further by attempting to create a common platform for all organizations involved in critical infrastructure service delivery.

Today’s PPDR networks predominantly provide service to ‘blue light’ organizations. There are parallel networks serving the international railway networks (GSM-R) and there are networks serving the utilities. All these organizations have a future need for mission-critical data service.

Sufficient broadband spectrum for all these separate networks will not be available. But the obvious solution would be to join forces and build one highly reliable broadband network controlled by governments. This makes good financial sense for the taxpayers too.

EU spectrum programme

Back in September 2010, the European Commission¹ issued a draft proposal for a future European-wide Radio Spectrum Policy Programme (RSPP). The process in Europe is such that the Commission issues a draft; the Parliament² debates and proposes changes; so does the Council³, and the three institutions then try to merge those positions together into an agreed policy. National parliaments later implement the decisions in national law.

In reviewing the new policy, it is worth noting the following opening statements:

• spectrum is a key public resource for essential sectors;
• it supports public services, such as security and safety services, including civil protection;
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