Can cell phones replace public safety communications?

Twenty years ago, few members of the public had mobile phones, while police, fire and other emergency responders had mobile equipment that provided point-to-point communications. Fast forward to the present, and almost everyone carries a cell phone. Consumer mobile communications has improved immeasurably, while the cost has dropped dramatically.

Meanwhile, public safety communications has stagnated, operating with equipment that hasn’t changed much from 20 years ago. As the Congress reviews the National Broadband Plan recently submitted by the Federal Communications Commission, and its call for the development of a multi-billion dollar investment in a proprietary nationwide emergency communications network for public safety, some examination should be given to the immense capabilities already available through existing cellular networks.

Deck is stacked against dedicated public safety communications networks

The relative size of the U.S. cell phone and public safety markets guarantees that development of the latter will be a perpetual also-ran. The CIA’s World Factbook estimated that in 2008 there were 270 million Americans carrying cell phones. This compares to the approximately one million public safety personnel reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2008. Public safety communications hardware is a niche market with expensive equipment and slow evolution.

While cellular carriers have made huge investments in infrastructure, cell phones are often free with a two-year contract, and most smart phones can be had for under $300. Consumers continually replace their phones with the latest generation, offering even greater capabilities. Today’s smart phones have evolved to the point where they provide storage and computing power that a few years ago could only be provided by a desktop or notebook computer.

Public safety mobile devices typically cost more than $2,000 per unit. Encryption and multiple bands can triple the cost over a basic unit. Depending on area, geography and coverage, repeater infrastructure can easily cost four times more than the mobile units themselves, and ongoing maintenance of this infrastructure represents an additional cost. Given these factors, existing public safety mobile equipment and infrastructure are being kept in service for as long as possible; often well into obsolescence.

The FCC estimates that it will cost $12 billion to $16 billion dollars over the next 10 years to build and maintain a nationwide public safety network, as called for in the National Broadband Plan. This may underestimate the actual costs. If this network is comparable to existing “P25” public safety communications networks, it would cost closer to $50 billion dollars to build and more than $7 billion per year to maintain. Moreover, any system designed in 2010 is certain to be obsolete by 2020, when the system is scheduled to be completed.

Telecommunications carriers justify their investment in cellular networks by the return on investment (ROI), while public safety organizations view their communications equipment and networks as a necessary cost, with no balancing revenue. Postponing infrastructure investments immediately reduces costs, but only gradually degrades the ability to perform the mission. State and local public safety agencies have seen their budgets shrink in the current economic downturn and face intense pressure to postpone upgrades. Building a nationwide public safety communication network will require commitment, funding and cooperation at the federal, state and local levels that will be exceptionally difficult for cash-strapped organizations to achieve and maintain during the many years it will take to build out such a network.

Current role of cell phones in public safety

The expense of deploying proprietary point-to-point mobile voice communications systems for pubic safety use has traditionally been justified under the premise that such a system would be the only operational system in scenarios where the existing commercial cellular network had been destroyed or disabled. However, there is an unproven assumption that public safety repeater systems would be more reliable than cell towers in a disaster. Given the investment the major cellular carriers have been making in providing backup power and disaster recovery, their networks are likely to be operating long after the emergency communications network proposed by the FCC has collapsed.

The current challenges public safety agencies face in communicating with each other will continue for the next 10 years, even if Congress adopts the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. These interoperability issues are manifested in the multiple proprietary networks built out for public safety agencies -- and their inability to communicate with each other -- even in cases where the agencies serve the same or adjacent communities. In many cases, fire, police and medical personnel responding to the same emergency have no effective way to communicate with each other through their existing communications networks.