Emergency services win from new spectrum plan

[lxth7]

http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_312403
I seen theres plenty of posts this could be attached to so I thought Id start a new one .
I had a bit of a look at it , sometimes I think you have to be a lawyer to understand some of the terminolgy.
Is this the go ahead for the police to come across to GRN.

[centralcoastscanman]

I'd say its going to piss off alot of government departments that want to run their own pmr systems...

Keep in mind this is only going to work if the ACMA refuse to take frequency renewal's from individual agencies, and only take them from the state government's IT department eg NSW GCIO or whatever they call themselves.

Its a shame its going to take so long to get it implemented but can't win em all

[ivahri]

I think there was a reference to the Premier's directive mentioned here a few weeks back. That is a fact & is in place now although there is a lot of stuff that needs to happen before it is implemented.

Bottom line- no NSW agency can approach ACMA for new licences. All licencing is done through the new agency (which doesn't exist yet)... This is nothing new as this has basically been the case since 2002 (a directive issued by Carr) but this one has more teeth.

Objective 1 of the new agency is for the integration of the Police conventional networks & the GRN. I suspect the RFS will also be in for a rude shock over time- I think their PMR systems will come under close scrutiny.

It couldn't be clearer and if anyone thinks that this wasn't signed off by department heads (in particular the Police & RFS Commissioners ) then you don't know how government functions.

Remember also that non-emergency services are being vacated from 400-480MHz. Railways have exclusive spectrum within it but for most agencies it will be either go on to a GRN or vacate 400MHz.

The new Liberal government, I suspect, will endorse this 100% as it is the next step in a sequence started under Greiner to rationalise government communications. I think it is long overdue, even if people like me might end up working somewhere else. The duplication, the awful design & waste... my only concern is that it might only feed more consultants who have no idea what they are doing. There are way too many communications consultants sucking the blood out of the radio industry and few have the vaguest clue as to how radio works.

Cheers,


Richard

[centralcoastscanman]

Richard,

I beg to differ on the your comments regarding nsw agencies not being able to deal with ACMA directly, my employer has been renewing their freq licenses for the last couple of years directly with acma without any problems. I had to remind them a few times that they'd be running expired licensed but they were still able to get them renewed by acma directly.

I must admit now though every single freq they issued with the exception of 5 new licenses are now expired which is quite funny since i think i read somewhere its a hefy fine for running a system with unlicensed freq's.. I suspect ACMA might have woken up and realised they should not have been sending my employer reminders to renew their licenses...

I do agree however that it is long overdue for government comms to be rationalised and setup properly to stop people running on ego trips, or thinking the grn had not moved forward from the days of when it was not designed for use by portable radios...

[ivahri]

I'm not sure that this is quite what was meant in the directive. Renewing existing licences is OK (for now), seeking new frequency assignments is not and ACMA have been instructed not to issue them without the concurrence of GCIO. That has been the case since 2002.

What you describe is the very reason why many of us feel it is time for change. Some agencies are just incapable of managing things themselves.

Cheers,

Richard

[BerryV]

Is this the go ahead for the police to come across to GRN.

They are already coming