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IP v. Analog

Sununu, for one, expressed dismay at the state of the nation's emergency communications infrastructure, which failed miserably in the aftermath of Katrina. According to Sununu, Congress has spent billions of dollars on homeland security communications projects, "and there still appear to be significant interoperability problems," he said. "Shame on me for assuming that money was well spent."

The IP communications industry, Sununu said, needs to step forward now and "clearly level criticism where it's due" about the existing communications infrastructure, which did not stand up to the floods or winds brought by Katrina to the Gulf region.

"IP, in the long run, will be more reliable and secure than the analog system[s]" Sununu said. "I think there is a lingering false assumption [in Congress] about the performance characteristics of an IP system, and that it will always be what it is today."

Advanced IP Pipeline | Sununu: Katrina's Effects May Split Telecom Legislation Business as usual should not continue in Congress, now that our nation's weaknesses have been exposed. The prevailing presumption in conversations I've had is that the rewrite of telecom legislation will take "at least a couple of years" because the impact is so great and so many powerful parties are impacted.

Perhaps that's why Sen. Sununu highlights the potential of spectrum issues to be split off the main legislation, so that some emergency spectrum can be allocated to first responders. This article also stresses the need for education among lawmakers - my fear is that too much of what legislators hear is provided by powerful lobbyists for incumbent interests, who give the background briefs a slant that favors existing technologies over new technologies.

Posted on October 06, 2005 at 10:06 PM

Comments

FIrst responders have a secure spectrum for public safety already-4.9Ghz is approved and products are just now being shipped. They do not need to bend to Motorola and other vendors with proprietary systems and start directing the FCC to provide/allocate the commercially valuable 700Mhz Spectrum for an second Licensed Public Safety network. These events are tragic but we should not cause us to react emotionally in this key spectrum arena and allocate additonal bandwidth to be used infrequently in the event of a Public Disaster or emergency. Use what you have allocated folks and move on.
Open the 700 Mhz SPectrum being freed up to allow Unlicensed use of the spectrum or at minimum to the innovative Open License use format as proposed with the 3650-3700 Mhz spectrum.
Jacomo

Posted by: Jacomo on October 11, 2005 01:42 PM


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