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| Joint Council on Transit Wireless Communications: Taking A Look Back – And Moving Forward |
| BY BARRY C. EINSIG, Market Director, Harris Corporation Washington, DC |
Wow, it’s hard to believe that it has been over a year since we launched the Joint Council on Transit Wireless Communications at the APTA Annual Conference in Orlando, FL, in October 2009. During the strategic planning of the organization over the summer of 2009 we set out to fulfill a vision and a mission:
Our Vision: To be the collective voice committed to addressing transit industry wireless communications needs.
Our Mission: To assure that transit industry wireless communications needs are continuously met through information sharing.
To the end of supporting our mission, facilitated by Delma Bratvold, we created a Strategic Plan with three primary components.
Strategic Goal #1. Promote and implement standards and regulations affecting private radio to assure uninterrupted communications and optimized spectrum use.
During the course of the past year we have taken some definite steps toward accomplishing these goals. These include helping to develop course material and providing subject matter experts for the class instruction and webinars on Narrowbanding taught by the NTI, proposing a TCRP quick study program for developing a list of agencies with UHF/VHF licenses that require narrowbanding, developing a narrowbanding brochure and collateral, and creating a narrowband webpage.
Equally important were the activities surrounding the 700 and 800 MHz bands. These activities included tracking regulatory status of these bands, responding to the FCC request for comments, developing an informational webpage on 800 MHz (rebanding), and beginning to plan for a webpage for the 700 band.
Strategic Goal #2. Facilitate transit industry knowledge of commercial communications advances to promote informed decision-making for purchases.
There are three defined steps toward meeting this goal in the strategic plan:
• Tracking commercial voice and data services, achieved by developing webpage and brochure dispersal on cellular priority of service as well as outreach to the cellular carriers to join our organization.
• Developing a periodic summary of commercial services applicable to transit, through presentations and conference calls; we also held a Broadband and Transit webinar in conjunction with the Wireless Communication Association International.
• Identification and development of means for purchase groups, which we look to make more progress on in 2011.
Strategic Goal #3. Represent transit industry needs in communications standards development and rulemaking to ensure consideration of public transportation needs. Led by Karl Witbeck, vice chair of the Joint Council, we have been extremely busy this year submitting filings to the FCC, particularly on Notices of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) as well as technical support for APTA on key spectrum issues on 220 MHz for Positive Train Control. The messaging set has been specific to the commuter railroads; we additionally worked with TCRP to develop a quick study of the spectrum utilization by commuter railroads to help support interoperability between the freight railroads and the commuter railroads. One of the other actions under this goal is the development of a listing of other potential funding sources that could be used for the transit industry’s wireless communications needs.
Recognizing the need to address the new broadband technologies and applications they enable, a new group was formed during the summer of 2010: the Technologies Committee, chaired by Jim Baker. Finally on Jan. 26, the Joint Council was invited to a workshop hosted by Roberto Mussenden of the Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC. The workshop focused on VHF/UHF Narrowbanding and its implications for transit agencies come January 1, 2013.
Our Priorities for 2011
Although 2010 was a productive year for the Joint Council, 2011 will have some very important goals. Highest on the agenda is securing a funding source. The council is a volunteer organization with some start-up money provided by TCRP. But to completely formalize our group’s structure, an additional funding source will be needed. Additionally, the council will continue to work on member value by remembering our goals:
• Grow membership
• Hold a seminar for operators
• Hold member terms/elections
• Develop liaisons for organizational outreach
• Create presentations, panels, papers, submit a TRB-Intellidrive Idea Project
• Develop the council’s position on the FCC “White Spaces” and Net Neutrality
• Work on standards for Information Assurance for wireless, disaster recovery, and TCIP
If you are interested in our activities or would like to become a member, visit our (web site), or contact Barry.Einsig@Harris.com, 717-855-7896. We look forward to having you as a part of our group.
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