Public Safety Hears the Call of Communications Incompatibility

Amid the resurgence in the telecom industry that is driving new facets such as interoperability, the public sector clearly doesn’t want to be left out.

Earlier this week, the Federal Communications Commission said, in light of the events of September 11, 2001 and last year’s hurricane season, it will establish the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to meet the needs of public safety by promoting robust, reliable and resilient communications

That comes after a burst of activity including the award of a five-year $500 million contract earlier this month by New York City 's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications to Northrop Grumman. The solution, powered by IPWireless’ TD-CDMA technology, uses UMTS to provide a broadband wireless network enabling first responders to access high-speed data, video and advanced applications.

Now Twisted Pair Solutions (TPS), a company that addresses the incompatibility of public safety communication systems, has scored $9 million in venture capital financing from Core Capital Partners, Ignition Partners of Bellevue, Washington and Chart Capital Partners of New York.

The incompatibility of radio communications, first highlighted by the September 11^th attacks on the World Trade Center , still plagues both first responders and the military. In fact, Marine soldiers that have recently returned from Baghdad still cite the communications breakdown as a chronic problem.

The TPS solution uses IP-based communications software to connect previously incompatible radios and other devices used by first responders enabling fire, police, and EMS departments to communicate across local, regional, and national jurisdictions.

“Twisted Pair represents the perfect convergence of technology and the needs of homeland security and public safety,” commented Tom Wheeler, Managing Director at Core Capital, who has also joined the board of the Seattle-based company.

“The WAVE platform, which is now deployed with our forces in to help them communicate, can do the same for firefighters, police, hospitals and other emergency service providers. Gone is the tragedy of September 11, when firefighters and police could not communicate with each other, the WAVE platform allows all radios, cell phones, and laptops to communicate with each other regardless of the technology used or frequency on which they operate,” he said in a press release.

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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.

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