APCO approves LTE as public-safety standard

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Global Alliance has adopted LTE technology as a worldwide standard following the Federal Communication Commission’s approval of a U.S. public-safety LTE request.
At a recent meeting of APCO International, delegates representing public-safety communications professionals from Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and other venues unanimously passed a formal policy statement titled: “4G Broadband Technologies for Emergency Services.”
“The Global Alliance’s actions today will further attract, stabilize and accelerate commercial development and investment in public-safety broadband markets worldwide,” said George Rice, executive director of APCO International. “The benefits of global standardization for emergency broadband networks will create a rich ecosystem of devices spurred by the standards-based designs, open intellectual property environments, commitments from chipset manufacturers, large communities of developers and interest from consumer electronics manufacturers.”
The statement made clear that the APCO Global Alliance recognizes LTE as the leading standard in 4G technology because of its worldwide adoption by the largest mobile communications providers, creating a global standard. The alliance says this allows capabilities in providing emergency service agencies and government organizations with cost-effective ways to meet broadband communication efforts across a larger selection of devices and applications.
The document identifies the benefits of LTE to include the technology’s all-IP architecture, spectral efficiency, and bandwidth flexibility to improve overall network economics. The alliance also states that as commercial carriers build their own LTE networks, emergency services worldwide that adopt LTE as the global standard for emergency broadband networks can capitalize from ongoing research and development that create more streamlined networks.
“The partner associations of the APCO Global Alliance endorse LTE as the global standard for 4G emergency communications broadband networks, in part, to increase our ability to influence the development of LTE standards in support of critical emergency services,” said Dick Mirgon, past president of APCO International.
Mirgon concluded that the endorsement of LTE allows the alliance to “accelerate development of suitable LTE devices in support of emergency services at reduced equipment costs, providing greater economies of scale for manufacturing, and promotion of competition.”