HSPA soon ready for public safety services

October 18, 2006

Mobile broadband HSPA technology will soon be ready to deliver the services needed by Americans for public safety. This message was delivered and demonstrated by experts representing 3G Americas.

On October 18, 2006 at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, 3G Americas hosted a mobile broadband wireless technology briefing with demonstrations focused on public safety for representatives of the FCC, NTIA, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, ITA, State Department, USTR, APCO, NENA and others.

"The development of mobile broadband wireless standards will provide exciting opportunities for public safety," stated Chris Pearson, President of 3G Americas. "Public safety agencies, and the people they protect, will benefit from the GSM technology family, with its open standards and cost-effective, off-the-shelf equipment that will support emergency and homeland security applications."

Benefits of mobile broadband for public safety include a global commercial GSM/HSPA ecosystem of infrastructure, devices and applications. This ecosystem of suppliers has tremendous ongoing investment in research and development, afforded by the enormous scope of the GSM/HSPA technology's more than 2 billion customers worldwide. These economies of scale allow for 'best in class' mobile broadband services for public safety stakeholders based on GSM's open and non-proprietary standard, which provides secure, interoperable, dependable and flexible communications.

At the technology briefing, FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell provided a keynote address followed by leading wireless experts who addressed technology trends of the wireless evolution to 3G and beyond, the role of semiconductors in mobile phones, and live HSPA demonstrations that showcased public safety applications. Notable speakers were Kris Rinne, 3G Americas' Chair and CTO of Cingular Wireless, Keith Shank, Director of Ericsson Experience, Paul Mankiewich, CTO of Lucent Technologies' Network Solutions Group, and Bill Krenik, Chief Technologist of Wireless Business, Texas Instruments.

3G Americas featured demonstrations over a 'live' private HSPA network to highlight the power of mobile broadband HSPA technology for key purposes in public safety. Replicating "real life" public safety scenarios, 3G Americas demonstrated how various emergency and planning teams -- from local to Federal -- can interoperate and transfer critical voice and data information utilizing different devices in any field location.

Vicki Livingston, Director of Marketing for 3G Americas, stated, "These demonstrations are reminiscent of the popular television series 24, with many applications possible today for real-life public safety."

One demonstration scenario depicted a fire at a nuclear facility with control of the fire, facility evacuation, medical assistance and broader community evacuation handled by local fire, police, medical services and state police, with support from various Federal agencies. Applications utilized on the HSPA network included: live video sharing to provide real-time visual information to public safety groups, access assurance to prioritize radio traffic for the responders and their support teams, high speed data access to demonstrate the concept of how first responders in the field can obtain critical data from state and Federal agencies, remote surveillance to allow all supporting agencies a view of the scene and location based services (LBS) to launch an APB and allow public safety officials to send IM (instant messaging) to police and medical units with a locater application to show positions of teams and issue appropriate coordination commands.

Another demonstration scenario involved a fire and medical emergency where four public safety groups -- police, fire, EMT and hospital ER doctors -- interacting by 3G wireless over the HSPA network utilized capabilities such as Push-to-Talk (PoC) over IP, High Speed Download, Streaming Video uplink for surveillance, and Presence and Location Based Services. In this scenario, the services allowed for the creation of a group PoC session between the involved safety officers, map sharing of the emergency site location, live video at the scene, access to internal database information, 'whiteboard' session with the floor plan of a building sent to a phone, Instant Messaging, high speed data transmission of medical information and live video monitoring of medical information from ambulance EMT's and ER physicians.

"Americans require new technology to provide the highest possible levels of public safety," concluded Livingston, "and the commercial mobile broadband capabilities of the GSM family will deliver the best case scenario for public well-being in the U.S. and worldwide."