ARCIA releases public safety paper

With public safety mobile broadband (PSMB) for Australia still up in the air, ARCIA has released a discussion paper outlining its views on what such a network requires.

As the critical communications industry awaits the results of federal government deliberations on the Productivity Commission report into provision of a PSMB network, those in the industry are keen to see the discussion progress along the right lines.

The ARCIA paper says that the organisation “believes very strongly that there now needs to be further activity at multiple levels as part of the overall development of a vision for the future development and implementation of this essential tool for our public safety agencies”.

It says the purpose of the paper is to “bring into better focus some of the needs at the various levels within relevant agencies and Government Departments, with the primary aim of putting the development of both the vision and implementation plan firmly back into the realm of the major beneficiaries of the PSMB system, the users”.

According to ARCIA, the current national PSMB discussion should not be about spectrum or funding; rather, it should be about “the real operational parameters… once they are better defined then items such as spectrum and funding requirements will become much clearer and more manageable”.

You can read the full paper here.

Image courtesy DFES