Philadelphia lights up 'the other kind' of LTE network

At the Philadelphia Police Academy on Tuesday, Motorola Solutions demonstrated the public safety LTE network technology it hopes to use to link up many of the cities that have already committed to constructing networks this year.

Philadelphia is part of the United States' East Coast megalopolis that is treated to the best in new communications technologies and infrastructure. Just about four months ago in December 2010, Verizon Wireless launched Philadelphia's 4G LTE network along with 38 other major metropolitan areas.

But a commercially-available LTE network is only part of the picture for the next-gen wireless standard. The National Broadband Plan stipulates that a next-gen public safety broadband network for first responders will also use LTE in the 700MHz range, and that national network is developing alongside the commercial one, albeit somewhat slower.

Only last week was LTE officially adopted as the worldwide public safety standard by The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO). The foundation of LTE's adoption in public safety isn't necessarily the result of its higher speed ceiling, but instead mostly because of the unified adoption of the technology by network operators.

"Since LTE is a global standard, it is capable of providing emergency service agencies and governmental organizations with a cost-effective way to meet their broadband communications needs and one that gives them a greater selection of devices and applications -- a capability that has been sought for years," a statement from APCO last week said.

Indeed, Motorola today highlighted the interoperability its public safety LTE network will have with Verizon's commercial network, facilitating what could essentially become the first roaming agreement for LTE.