As fires rage through Southern California it seems appropriate to consider the effect of natural disasters on our critical Emergency Wireless infrastructure. At the time of writing, winds continue to threaten structures in Ventura County and surrounding areas which threaten not only the population and housing but also the communication infrastructure such as cellular services, which could affect public safety, according to Cal Fire.

Previously, the equally devastating wildfires which ravaged Sonoma and Napa counties destroyed nearly 2,000 structures and caused significant damage to critical infrastructure in the region. Many customers lost the cellular services they have come to rely on, at the one time they were most needed.  And according to the Federal Communications Commission, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Aransas County, Texas reported nearly 95%of its cell towers were out of service.  Carriers reportedly did a great job overall, as far fewer towers were impacted than in previous hurricanes and service was restored more quickly. But while important to users and definitely a benefit to public safety in an emergency, cellular services were not designed nor intended to be Mission Critical Systems.

By comparison, the current Emergency Radio Services Infrastructure used by first responders is built to exacting standards and while there is little that can withstand something like a raging forest fire for long, they are designed to be resilient and resistant to fire and high winds. In the light of these recent devastating events and as FirstNet begins to roll out its initial Public Safety data Network and Services, it is perhaps worth reflecting on the fundamental difference between Commercial Cellular infrastructure and Mission Critical Infrastructure.

Designed to augment, but with the eventual goal of replacing Emergency Communication Services for the vast majority of First Responders, FirstNet will be built primarily on commercial cellular towers, not dedicated facilities.

AT&T who is responsible for deploying the FirstNet system notes that “95%or more of the U.S. population will be covered by the dedicated public safety LTE band 14, which will be deployed on most of AT&T’s existing sites, including those that are at or near capacity. Band 14 will also be deployed on new sites to cover rural areas that are un-served or underserved. This is in addition to using our existing LTE bands to support FirstNet,” noted an AT&T spokesman indicating that they are indeed planning on adding new sites to ensure they meet FirstNet service goals.
However, the indication that AT&T will be upgrading most of their sites to include Band 14 while also using existing bands to deliver Mission Critical Service supports the conclusion that the majority of sites will still be based on existing towers and locations.

That’s not to say that additional work will not be conducted to make these existing towers more secure and resilient. But commercial sites are not built (or selected) based on their ability to provide emergency services, more to deliver high speed, high capacity data to commercial users at the lowest cost. It is neither practical nor economically feasible to burden a commercial deployment with the full costs of building a resilient emergency radio system designed to withstand whatever nature can throw at it. Discussions on pre-emption aside (i.e. booting off commercial users to permit emergency service First Responders prioritized or even exclusive access) there needs to be an effective infrastructure in place which can withstand the impact of the very emergencies they are designed for. There is little point having prioritized access in an emergency if the equipment cannot operate during or in the aftermath of that emergency.

As FirstNet grows it will provide much-needed data services to First Responders and will inevitably expand to encompass integrated voice services as well as data. As Responders become ever more reliant on its important and valuable services for their Mission Critical applications, it will be interesting to see how lawmakers respond to the evolving needs for reliability and availability. It will also be interesting to see how FirstNet balances these requirements against the very real and reasonable cost concerns that a commercial carrier will have on hardening all its sites for one ancillary (but vital) service. Worse things can happen than temporarily losing your cell service (unless you are a millennial in which case it is a disaster of biblical proportions), but not if you are a First Responder whose life, and the lives of those who rely on them, is on the line.