New Coalition Forming to Promote In-building Wireless

May 1, 2012

Public safety is an issue for all large venues. Everyone agrees that access to wireless coverage for public safety first responders inside of buildings will save lives. Not everyone agrees, however, on how to get there.

As an answer to this dilemma, members of the in-building wireless industry are forming the Safer Buildings Coalition to educate the public safety community, the building owners and the cellular carriers on why public safety radios should be accommodated on DAS networks installed inside of buildings.

“Coverage for public safety radio communications often fails when first responders work inside of buildings,” said Seth Buechley, SOLiD Technologies, a founding member. “We believe that DAS is an effective platform and cost-efficient way to solve the problem.”

Technology might be the easy part. The political landscape is more than daunting. Public safety agencies have no money to deploy inside buildings and have a tendency to want to control any system they use. Commercial carriers are more than a little concerned about technical compatibility issues with the high-power public safety two-way radios, system management and liability issues in case of system failure.

“Although the wireless industry emotionally supports public safety coverage, business matters tend to get in the way,” Buechley said. “It’s akin to motorists’ attitude toward a hitchhiker. The Safer Buildings Coalition wants to change the paradigm whereby public safety becomes viewed as a carpooler that responsibly pays its share to – following the analogy – be on the DAS.”

To achieve this goal, the Safer Buildings Coalition must execute a multi-prong approach that includes educating the market on the problems and solutions; influencing policy to ensure public safety coverage inside buildings by mandating that, when a building receives the installation of a DAS, the system be able to support public safety services; and establishing certification standards for integrators installing and for managing DAS networks that provide coverage for public safety.