Police Federation
of Australia
Mobile broadband comms
“a game changer” for police
The PFA is convinced that this move to
21st century technology will be a “game
changer” for policing that will also save lives.
Vince Kelly
Following the July 2013 report of the federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement into
Spectrum for public safety mobile broadband, the Police Federation of Australia (PFA) is taking the
issue to MPs and Senators and key Ministers including the then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for
Broadband Communications, Anthony Albanese MP.
“The landmark report by the Parliamentary Committee
provides unanimous and bi-partisan recommendations on
adequate spectrum for public safety in its report. There
is now no excuse for inaction on the part of Australia’s
political leaders because this is clearly a matter of public
safety,” according to PFA President, Vince Kelly.
The report recommends:
•
“that the Minister for Broadband Communications
and the Digital Economy issue a Ministerial Direction
to the Australian Communications and Media
Authority to allocate 20 MHz of contiguous spectrum
in the 700 MHz band for the purposes of a public
safety mobile broadband network”;
•
“that the Minister for Broadband, Communications
and the Digital Economy take appropriate measures
to secure, for public safety agencies, priority access
to an additional 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz
band for public safety purposes”;
• recommendation 1 is not supported by the
“if
Australian Government, the committee recommends
that the Minister for Broadband, Communications
and the Digital Economy issue a Ministerial Direction
to the Australian Communications and Media
Authority to allocate as a minimum requirement,
20 MHz in the 800 MHz band for the purposes of a
public safety mobile broadband network”;
•
“that the Attorney-General’s Department facilitate
a public consultation process on a regulatory
framework for overflow arrangements between
public safety agencies and commercial carriers”; and
•
“that the Australian Government direct an
appropriate portion of the proceeds derived from
the auction of spectrum to fund the allocation
of 20 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band for
the purposes of a national public safety mobile
broadband network”.
The PFA, together with the State and Territory
Governments, Police Services, the Australian Fire
Authorities Council and many of the supplier companies
in the telecommunications industry, strongly support the
Parliamentary Committee’s recommendations.
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NORTHERN TERRITORY POLICE NEWS
“What we need now is for the Committee’s
recommendations to be adopted by the Rudd
Government and by the Coalition, so that whoever
forms government after the election is committed to
implementing the report, resulting in national mobile
broadband communications for police and other
emergency services across the country,” Vince Kelly said.
We have made this a priority in the PFA pre-election
policy document, Mr Kelly said.
The PFA’s preference is for spectrum in the 700 MHz
band because it is available now, whereas the 800 band
would have to be cleared of many important users.
Some commentators, representing the Telcos, talk of
developing a national inter-operable network for public
safety as “pie in the sky” and “fanciful”. They claim it
could cost billions of dollars. This is just silly or ignorant,
according to the PFA.
It ignores the fact that police and emergency services
already have extensive and “hardened” networks with all
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