Lucent, Motorola Battle at FCC over 700 MHz Standards
Motorola and Lucent are squaring off at the FCC over 700 MHz public safety spectrum. The fight touches on whether the Commission should require broadband and endorse EVDO as a single standard for public safety use, or allow flexibility. If the FCC does so, adoption of EVDO would be similar to FCC adoption of P25 as a narrowband interoperability standard. The conflict marks a Lucent push to crack a public safety market long dominated by Motorola, sources said.
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Arguments by Motorola on public safety matters usually get significant weight at the Commission due to the company’s position as the top maker of radios and its deep ties to the public safety community. Nonetheless, sources said Wed., it is noteworthy that the FCC sought comment on Lucent’s EVDO proposal, plus proposals by Motorola and NPSTAC. Motorola has been the “800 pound gorilla” in public safety communications, but faces a fight from Lucent, a regulatory lawyer who follows the proceeding said: “It’s an issue of who is going to out-muscle the other. It’s interesting that the FCC moved fairly quickly on Lucent’s proposal. It’s definitely going to be a battle. Watch this space.”
“They all want the same thing in the end. They all believe that wideband wireless is something that is required by public safety agencies,” said another source following the issue. Motorola seems to have an advantage over Lucent, this source said: “Motorola has long established ties to the public safety agencies that stretches decades. Firemen have firemen babies and policemen have policemen babies, so it really stretches generations… Motorola has a leg up from the get-go.”
In 1998, the FCC adopted a 700 MHz bandplan dividing the 24 MHz of spectrum that will go to public safety after the DTV transition into 12 MHz of narrowband and 12 MHz of wideband channels. But in March the Commission sought comments on possible changes to this plan. The FCC got input on other issues as well, including configuration of the channels.
“EV-DO is a high-volume, open-standard wireless technology supported by a broad base of manufacturers,” Lucent said in comments. “EV-DO continues to be developed in a robust, competitive standardization environment actively supported by multiple network operators, equipment manufacturers, and software vendors.” Lucent added: “Due to the strong, active involvement of commercial network operators in the EV-DO standardization process, EV-DO employs open interfaces and standardized architectures, allowing commercial wireless service providers to select equipment from multiple vendors.”
Lockheed Martin backed Lucent. “To achieve broadband interoperability, the Commission must ensure seamless sharing of data and images among multiple agencies’ network equipment, user devices, and application management frameworks, in addition to a common air interface technology,” the company said: “A full suite of standards, therefore, is necessary.”
But other commenters asked the FCC not to mandate a standard but to allow flexibility. The International Assn. of Fire Chiefs said the rules should let agencies “choose the broadband and/or wideband technologies that best meet… local requirements.”
“What public safety has said and Motorola has said is that it doesn’t make sense to force public safety to do broadband,” a source who opposes the Lucent proposal said: “There is a wideband standard that’s been adopted for public safety. Wideband will make sense for public safety in an awful lot of situations… EVDO is not a public safety standard.”