Acting before the comms crisis hits

As I write this, ARCIA has recently held events in Perth and Sydney, and will be doing so in Brisbane at the end of July. These events, in conjunction with mini conferences from Comms Connect, are an excellent way for all industry participants to get across the latest technologies and techniques. We’re certainly getting great feedback, and I encourage all members to make the time to get involved.

As part of these events, ARCIA has decided to recognise the significant contribution that people all over Australia make to our industry. At each event an award based on local nominations is considered and, as part of that process for the NSW event, I certainly found it interesting to read how many great people are out there doing what they do. I encourage you to keep an eye on your state event and think about how we celebrate and recognise the good work, often unnoticed, happening out there every day.

This year is certainly turning out to be a very busy one, with changes coming in spectrum rules, the Productivity Commission enquiry into Public Safety Mobile Broadband, a decision on the 900 MHz Band Plan and all the ARCIA events happening around Australia.

I read with interest the announcement at the end of June that the federal government, along with contributions from many of the states, had committed $100 million in mobile black spot funding. No one can deny how important good quality communications is, especially for regional areas, and we all understand the economic and social benefits it brings. However, it makes the industry think why there can’t be the same level of cooperation for the funding of public safety communications.

Despite the obvious need and the great work being done by many people at a state level, it seems that we still don’t have the necessary basic infrastructure required by all groups involved in public safety. It doesn’t really matter what technology we end up with on the sites, be it LMR or LTE; without the core infrastructure, the cost of deployment overall is a major barrier to success, and the greatest costs of deployment are the sites and links. All the hype over technology is pointless if you can’t afford to deploy it.

No doubt the federal black spot funding is intended to help carriers build infrastructure that would otherwise not be commercially viable; yet there seems no obvious coordination between the cellular and LMR industries, which would be a good start. In the case of NSW, as we struggle to replace legacy analog systems and despite years of building a state-wide GRN, we still do not have a coordinated plan for the basic infrastructure. To add another layer of complexity, we still have the NSW Department of Trade and Investment charging sky-high rents for radio sites located on Crown land.

It seems to me that if this problem was instead the planning of a major sporting event or perhaps a relief effort, all levels of government would have met, established principles and made decisions by tea time. Why does it need to become a crisis before we act?

Finally, here as some ‘save the dates’: ARCIA AGM, 12 August at the PARKROYAL Melbourne Airport hotel; and the Adelaide mini conference and dinner on 23 September. We’re also spreading our wings: look for ARCIA on Twitter, @ARCIAorg.

Hamish Duff

President

Australian Radio Communications Industry Association