I’ve recently been talking to several first responders about communications needs. One of the issues that keeps being raised is that first responders are dismayed that ISPs don’t recognize that public safety sites are mission-critical.  This blog will talk about what that means for providing voice and data service.

A critical mission location is one that can not be allowed to lose communications service. The public is instantly at peril if 911 centers, firehouses, police stations, and other similar mission-critical sites lose the ability to communicate with the public. Where this gets complicated is that mission-critical sites should not only survive during routine network outages from problems like fiber cuts, but should also be able to survive big events like hurricanes, fires, and other catastrophes.

The first element needed to protect mission-critical locations is redundancy. Redundancy can come in multiple forms. First, it means having voice and broadband service from more than one ISP. It doesn’t do any good for a big ISP like Verizon or Comcast to put in diversely routed lines to a mission-critical site, because that site is going to lose service if that single ISP loses service.

Redundancy also means having diverse physical routes leaving a mission-critical site. That’s a lot harder to achieve than you might imagine. It means each redundant broadband provider can’t use the same physical path to leave the local critical mission site – and that means along the entire path between a mission-critical site and the Internet hub. It’s common for ISPs to use fiber along the same main roads into and out of communities. I recall a story from a few years ago where a firehouse had two different ISP connections, but lost service when a fiber was cut outside of the town that carried the connections from both ISPs. It’s easy to forget that ISPs today often rely on third-party middle-mile providers to carry traffic between communities, which makes it even more likely that middle-mile routes are shared.

Redundancy also means having an automatic switchover if a primary voice or data provider drops service. This can quickly become complicated if a mission-critical site loses a large broadband pipe on fiber and has to switch to something less robust, like a satellite connection. Switching means having to restrict the traffic that can be allowed during a time of restricted bandwidth.

Many communities use private fiber and wireless networks devoted to public safety so that they aren’t fully reliant on commercial ISPs. But these alternatives, like FirstNet or public safety radios, can quickly become overwhelmed after an emergency. I’ve heard numerous stories of how both of these kinds of networks get quickly overloaded and nearly worthless after a major emergency like a big fire or a hurricane.

Probably the biggest complaint I hear from first responders is that ISPs don’t provide any better service quality for mission-critical facilities than they do to the public. That’s not the story that ISPs tell public safety officials when they are trying to sell service, but the reality often doesn’t meet the original sales pitch. As an example, I was told of a fiber cut to a firehouse where a large ISP took a week to determine that the outage was due to a fiber cut and fixed the problem. That is sadly also often becoming the normal outage repair timeline for residential neighborhoods, but mission-critical facilities should get priority repairs.

Probably the biggest problem underlying the whole issue is funding. It’s not unusual for even a rural county to have dozens of mission-critical locations, and at a time when state and local budgets are squeezed, it’s hard to find the funding to afford full redundancy for all mission-critical locations.