The actual article in the policy concerning PPDR (Article 8: Spectrum needs for other specific Union policies), which now is being transposed into national law in the 27 EU countries, states: “The Commission shall, in cooperation with the Member States, seek to ensure that sufficient spectrum is made available under harmonised conditions to support the development of safety services and the free circulation of related devices as well as the development of innovative interoperable solutions for public safety and protection, civil protection and disaster relief.”

Global developments

Public Protection and Disaster Relief is a niche activity and it has some unique requirements in the technology it needs. For such a vital niche market, it is of the utmost importance to achieve the greatest possible spectrum harmonization across the region – not only so that radio terminal equipment can be realized at cost-effective prices but to allow for seamless inter-regional interoperability between public safety and other governmental agencies.

ITU Region 2 – the Americas: on February 16, the US Congress passed a bill authorizing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reallocate the 700?MHz D-Block spectrum for dedicated public safety broadband use. In conjunction with previously allocated public safety broadband block spectrum, US public safety will now have 20?MHz of dedicated broadband spectrum in 2 × 10?MHz contiguous blocks. Canada has announced that it is following the same spectrum approach.

ITU Region 3 – Asia-Pacific: the APT Wireless Group (AWG) has been working on its digital dividend issue and has developed reports on the situation in APT member countries as well as preferred frequency arrangements for the use of the band 698–806?MHz, which is becoming available as part of the digital dividend.

Many Asian countries are already actively moving to implement the results of these studies, which propose how PPDR spectrum should be allocated. 

ITU Region 1 – Europe, Africa, Middle East: in 2011, the European CEPT/ECC established a project team (FM49), ‘Radio Spectrum for Public Protection and Disaster Relief’ with a mandate to “identify and evaluate suitable bands for European-wide harmonisation of spectrum (both below and above 1?GHz), by taking into account cross-border-communication issues and PPDR application requirements”. The team’s terms of reference also enjoin it to “take note of the PPDR frequency use in other ITU Regions”.

Meeting point

FM49 is where European spectrum regulators are working together with user representatives in order to define a road map and the amount of spectrum needed. FM49 plans to provide a report in 2014. 

Meanwhile, police officials from all EU countries are meeting in the Law Enforcement Working Party (LEWP, a sub-group of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in the European Council) and are working with ETSI to define their future data needs. This work will have a direct impact on how much spectrum FM49 will determine is needed.

It is essential that the user community participate in this work. 

Preparing for the worst

Europe’s PPDR sector in is confronted with a growing need for mobile data applications. In the future, data communication will be required in performing the tasks that are entrusted to PPDR organizations. To do this, the sector requires its own dedicated networks, so that communication is guaranteed in even the most severe disaster. 

A harmonized frequency band will make it possible to work with the same technologies, achieving interoperability across the entire critical infrastructure sector.

The public cellular broadband networks are an extension of the public Internet. They are designed to be a part of the Internet and behave accordingly. It doesn’t help how well you encrypt your traffic when the network is unavailable. Whether the cause is deliberate attack or just simple overload, your communication capability has gone. 

Consequently, public cellular broadband networks cannot be trusted for mission-critical services. Dedicated broadband networks for government use are essential, just as dedicated government intranets are essential today. 
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