APCO supports ESOs’ 800 MHz

APCO Australasia supports the latest proposal put forward by the federal government for emergency service organisations (ESOs) to be allocated spectrum in the 800 MHz band to build their own stand-alone national mobile broadband network.

Des Bahr, chief executive officer, said: “We should be looking at the solution that will best support our ESOs, which APCO Australasia believes to be the proposed 800 MHz spectrum.

“If the reported properties of 800 MHz spectrum meet the public safety agencies’ requirements as a reliable and resilient mobile broadband capability, it will benefit ESOs in the form of reduced equipment costs through economies of scale and increased interoperability within other countries in our region,” he said.

ESOs were originally pushing the government for 20 MHz of the digital dividend (700 MHz) spectrum to build their own network, which is claimed to cost up to $1 billion to build.

“The telecommunications industry is very concerned that recent ESO calls for some of the digital dividend spectrum would result in a lose-lose outcome because it would isolate Australian emergency services from the Asia-Pacific region and also impede the mobile telecommunications industry’s ability to roll out the new 4G mobile broadband networks,” said Chris Althaus, chief executive officer of Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA).

AMTA has said the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had designated 806 to 824 MHz and 851 to 869 MHz for public protection and disaster relief in the Asia-Pacific region.

A steering committee, to be co-chaired by the Attorney-General’s Department and the Department for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and to include senior representatives from public safety agencies, will look further into the matter, with a view to report at the next meeting of the Standing Council on Police and Emergency Services.

APCO looks forward to what will come from these deliberations and is hopeful 800 MHz will be the best possible solution for supporting the critical work of our public safety agencies.