So, the Senate has approved a delay of the DTV transition until June. What I’d like to know is, why? I understand their rationale. Too many people are unprepared for the transition, the coupons that would save consumers $40 on their converter boxes are about to expire, they’ve run out of coupons and there isn’t any money to print more, blah, blah, blah. What I don’t understand is why the Senate cares. The word has been out for three years about the transition. And the message couldn’t have been clearer: if you’re getting your TV signal from a cable or satellite provider, you’re fine; otherwise, you need a converter box if you have an analog TV. What is so hard to understand about that? The procrastinators shouldn’t be allowed to muck this up. Think about this in terms of a railway. The timetable lets you know when the train will depart, and it’s up to you to be on the platform. If you’re not—for whatever reason—the train leaves without you. It should work that way regarding the DTV transition. If people were asleep at the switch, so to speak, they can read a book until they can get their precious TV back (it would probably do them some good). Regarding the coupon-related problems, there are two simple fixes: (1) suspend the expiration date for those that already are in circulation; and tell those who can’t get their hands on a coupon right now to buy a box and keep their receipt, which they can mail in later for a refund (the money they would save on printing more coupons could be applied to the reimbursement costs). Too many important initiatives—including those related to public-safety communications—depend on this transition. It needs to move forward, without delay. Does anyone really think a four-month delay is going to make that much of a difference anyway?
Today, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s resignation becomes effective after serving on the commission for eight years. Traditionally, FCC chairmen have departed when replaced as head of the commission, but Martin had left open the possibility that he might stay. During the Consumer Electronics Show early this month, Martin reportedly noted that his term does not expire until 2011 and said, “I don’t have anything to go do yet.” However, in an announcement last week, Martin said he will serve as a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C.
Combined with Deborah Taylor Tate’s tenure at the FCC ending earlier this month, Martin’s departure will leave Commissioner Robert McDowell as the lone Republican on the commission.
Although not officially announced yet, President-elect Barack Obama will appoint Julius Genachowski to succeed Martin as FCC chairman, according to multiple media outlets. A law-school friend of Obama, Genachowski was general counsel to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt during the Clinton administration before entering the private sector in a variety of roles, including co-founding startup incubator Launchbox Digital.
I listened to President George W. Bush’s final press conference on Monday, and I have to say I felt bad for him. Reporters hit him with questions about his failures: 911, Osama, Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq War, the mortgage crisis and the economy. Bush stood his ground. He pointed to the 30,000 saved from New Orleans’ rooftops and the success in rebuilding Iraq and U.S. stimulus packages. But the fact is, we are at war, our economy is hurting, our trade deficit is soaring. In fact, some would argue our country’s in bad shape. Now, it’s president-elect Barack Obama’s turn to get our country on the right track. And I really hope public safety gets some of his attention. Harlin McEwen, chairperson of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust, does too and already has sent Obama a letter asking for $15 billion to build-out a nationwide wireless broadband network. However, Obama seems more interested in pushing back the digital TV transition that was put into place to open much of the 700 MHz band for commercial and public-safety wireless networks in support of public-safety communications. So I have to ask: Is this the president who will take this issue seriously, or, to steal from Obama’s campaign mantra, will we just have to keep our fingers cross and hope for change?
What do you think? Tell us in the comment box below.
Believe it or not, it’s been almost three years since the Utah Communications Agency Network (UCAN) was announced as the first public-safety entity to sign an agreement to secure funding that enabled it to pay for planning associated with its 800 MHz rebanding effort. UCAN executive director Steve Proctor said the last physical rebanding work on the network’s infrastructure was completed in late December. Proctor said there are still a few “straggler” mobile and portable radios that need to be reprogrammed and the inevitable paperwork associated with the “true-up” process before UCAN will be done with rebanding.
The good news is that the experience of UCAN and systems like the one run by the state of Colorado prove that even large networks can be rebanded. The bad news is that, if a first-mover poster child like UCAN—an entity fully engaged in the process as early as November 2004—is just finishing rebanding now, it’s hard to imagine that FCC’s current target of completing the first three waves of rebanding by July 1 is realistic.
Meanwhile, before the government complains about the pace of rebanding, it should first take a hard look in the mirror. Public-safety agencies along the Mexican border are still stuck in the starting blocks, waiting for the U.S. and Mexico to reach an 800 MHz agreement so they can start the rebanding process. Although federal officials have been citing “progress” in negotiations with Mexico at trade shows for the past couple of years, no deal has been announced in the four years since Nextel Communications accepted the 800 MHz rebanding reconfiguration order issued by the FCC in mid-2004.
At this pace (or lack thereof), it’s not farfetched to think that a large, complex system located near the Mexican border will struggle to finish rebanding by 2013. And Murphy’s Law dictates that the radio guy for such a system also will be responsible for ensuring that a sub-512 MHz network gets rebanded by the 2013. For good measure, he’ll probably be affected by a 700 MHz problem, as well. Just the thought of such a possibility makes me glad I only write about this industry.
I was glued to History Channel last weekend, as it broadcast back-to-back documentaries on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the first covering how Roosevelt led America out of the Great Depression, the second with how he led us through World War II. Roosevelt is on my list of those I hope to meet in Heaven—I’m still hopeful I’ll be able to slip through the backdoor (or an open window)—because I think he’s our country’s greatest president. With all due respect to Abraham Lincoln, who had to deal with the divisive Civil War, Roosevelt was faced with two watershed events, either of which could have brought America to its knees.
Ironically, a conversation I had with Chuck Dowd , deputy chief in charge of communications for the New York City Police Department, the day before the documentaries were broadcast made me think about Roosevelt. Dowd told me that there are indications that the incoming presidential administration might approach the proposed 700 MHz broadband network for first responders as a public-works project. Of course, Roosevelt was the architect of the massive public-works initiative dubbed the Works Progress Administration, which put millions of people to work during the Great Depression building roads, dams and bridges. But he also was the first to envision the interstate highway system, appointing a committee in 1942 to study the feasibility of such an undertaking.
Here’s hoping that there’s someone in the Obama administration capable of demonstrating Roosevelt-like vision concerning a network that undeniably would be a boon to first responder communications.
I spent some time in Motorola’s booth this week during the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual conference in San Diego. I was most interested in the company’s demonstration of wireless broadband applications for public safety over a 700 MHz, Long Term Evolution-based system. The demo was impressive—and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust, which holds the license for the airwaves that would be paired with commercial spectrum to form the spectral foundation for a nationwide wireless broadband network for first responders, also came away impressed. (This will become more relevant should a miracle occur and Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, which both have chosen LTE for their 4G migrations, decide to bid on the commercial spectrum when it is re-auctioned next year.)
I also took in a demo of Motorola’s APX multiband radio. The noise suppression capability was impressive. I immediately thought about the problem firefighters are having with because the vocoder used in most of them are unable to distinguish between voice and background noise in very loud environments. I asked Motorola spokesman Steve Gorecki whether the noise suppression technology engineered into the APX might be the answer to the fireground problems. He told me that the technology was developed well before the fireground problem jumped onto the radar screen, so it’s way too early to tell whether it could be adapted to solve the fireground problem, which he said is a complicated, industry-wide challenge. That said, Motorola demonstrated the technology at APCO’s conference in August using a fireground simulation and it performed well. Yes, real life is very different from a simulation. But, it seems as if Motorola might have a leg up on figuring this out.
A lot of readers worry about how to fund new communication systems or pay for large-scale educational programs to prepare communities for the security challenges of the modern age. They may be in luck, as additional guidance about federal funding has been released by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA released fiscal year 2009 application guidance for 14 federal grant programs.
The grant programs offer more than $3 billion of available federal funding to assist state and local governments in strengthening community preparedness. The $3 billion is allocated to several specific programs and are awarded according to a risk-assessment methodology that assesses threat, vulnerability and consequence, according to DHS. The FY 2009 risk methodology has not changed from FY 2008.
M/A-COM is the name still used by the state of New York, but the company has been transitioning to the Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems name for months. In fact, at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) show in August, the word M/A-COM was nowhere to be found around the company’s booth.
The reason for the name change is that the M/A-COM name was sold by Tyco Electronics as part of the $425 million deal with Cobham for “old M/A-COM”—the RF components and microwave subsystems portion of the company. That portion of the company includes a lot of aerospace and defense work, including the design and manufacturing of an affordable cognitive radio for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
While the name M/A-COM will live on with the Cobham-owned entity (the sale closed a little more than a month ago), the rest of the business will continue operating under the Tyco Electronics name. For the moment, we at Urgent Communications are referencing the company as Tyco Electronics M/A-COM to help ensure that readers know which company we’re talking about during this transitional phase.
At some point, we’ll use the Tyco Electronics name exclusively, perhaps with a “formerly known as M/A-COM” reference on occasion (much like a magazine that happens to employ me). Eventually, officials for the vendor say they want the company to be known as TE Wireless Systems, but we probably need to get readers accustomed to the Tyco Electronics moniker before shortening it.
Last week I received a check from my bank, a refund from the escrow account from which the bank pays my property taxes. It was a significant amount of money—at least in the eyes of a journalist (There’s a very good reason my profession is referred to as the Fourth Estate). At first I was excited—I’ve had some medical issues this year, so a few bills are going to get paid earlier, which will get my doctors excited. The bank wasn’t sure why the surplus existed—it could have been that the taxes were over-estimated when I bought the house last year. Or it could be that the taxes have dropped, perhaps because the value of my property has dropped.
I thought about the latter possibility. If my taxes have dropped because my property value has diminished, presumably as a result of the lending fiasco, then others—perhaps thousands of others—are in the same boat. Also, consumers are tightening the belt, spending less in stores, restaurants, entertainment venues and the like. That means less sales tax revenue. None of this bodes well for first-responder communications, which is largely dependent on funding generated from tax dollars.
I’ve never understood why people make such a fuss about birthdays. The first one, well, I can see why people get excited about that—the day one comes out of the womb definitely is worth noting. After that, not so much. To me, it’s just another day on the calendar. That said, I do think that birthdays take on significant meaning when they pile up to the point where you begin to think of them in terms of decades. A good example of what I’m talking about is EFJohnson Technologies, which last week commemorated its 85th anniversary. Now, I can’t speak to the quality of the company’s products, as I don’t use portable or mobile radios in my line of work. But I do know that surviving for more than eight decades in a marketplace dominated by a behemoth is a significant achievement. Curious as to how EFJ has done so, I spoke last week with Max Safavi, the company’s chief operating officer, and Ed Kelly, vice president of marketing. I’ll share what they told me in tomorrow’s edition of the Urgent Communications Today e-newsletter. … A shout out to attorney Robert Schwaninger, who has authored an illustrated humor book, “A Married Man’s Guide to Christmas,” the Radio Club of America reported in its November newsletter. Schwaninger wrote the book, which is available through Amazon.com, under the nom de plume “Robert Henry.” … Speaking of the RCA, its annual banquet, which features keynote speaker Paul Jacobs, the CEO of Qualcomm, will be held Nov. 21 at the New York Athletic Club in NYC. Jacobs will receive the prestigious Sarnoff Citation—as will Brian Williams of the NBC Nightly News—which is awarded in recognition of contributions to the advancement of electronic communications. Tickets to the awards banquet are available until November 14. Contact Karen Clark at 303-948-4921.
