Friday fragments - comms news from around the web for 26 September 2014

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 26 September 2014.

Tait has a new CEO. Garry Diack has been appointed CEO of Tait Communications. He has a 25-year career as an advisor in corporate performance improvement, governance and growth-related strategies in New Zealand and offshore. He has served as a Trustee of the Contel Charitable Trust, one of the owners of Tait Communications, since 2007. Diack's advisory roles have included News Limited (now News Corp Australia) and PMP Limited. He was also involved in the merger activities which led to the creation of Fonterra in 2001 and, as interim CEO, led state-owned enterprise Solid Energy through a period of challenging market conditions last year. Diack replaces former CEO Frank Owen, who stepped down in April 2014. David Wade, Tait Communications acting CEO, will remain with the company.

'Creaky' spectrum process a problem. In a presentation (PDF) at a GSMA-sponsored mobile industry conference, US FCC Jessica Rosenworcel said the FCC's process of “clearing federal users, relocating and re-auctioning the cleared spectrum for new use - is creaky. It's a slow way to go when the wireless world is moving fast. That is why it is time for a federal spectrum policy that is based on carrots, not sticks. We need to develop a series of incentives to serve as the catalyst for freeing more federal spectrum for commercial use. We need to find ways to reward federal authorities for efficient use of their spectrum so that they see benefit in commercial reallocation rather than just loss."

Optus 10 almost in place. Optus says it has successfully completed raising the orbit of its latest satellite, Optus 10, which has been positioned at a temporary test location on the geostationary arc to enable the testing. Once testing is complete, the satellite will be relocated to its operational location at 164° east, which is the longitude roughly halfway between Australia and New Zealand (although, being geostationary, the satellite is actually located above the equator).

Telstra ditches LTE-A 900, 1800 MHz. Telstra will focus on pairing 700 MHz and 1800 MHz frequencies for its LTE-A services and stop development of 900 MHz + 1800 MHz. It will also go ahead with carrier aggregation.

FirstNet releases RFI. FirstNet in the US has released a 15-page RFI (PDF) to get feedback from suppliers and vendors on “industry's capabilities, evaluate best procurement approaches and determine how to best leverage existing capabilities and best practices to meet public safety needs".

1500 MHz available in India. A total of a little over 1500 MHz spread across several bands will shortly become available for auction in India.

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