Public safety has in recent years taken on a much broader meaning and goes well beyond the provision of emergency services involving police, fire, ambulance and rescue support to the population.  There is now an increased emphasis on measures to identify potential public safety and security issues and develop contingency and response plans to deal with them.  These types of public safety activities require extensive coordination and communications, which is driving the need for increasingly more sophisticated and cost-effective broadband services, particularly within urban areas.

Broadband technology has a large number of applications in the area of public safety and is being used increasingly by emergency service personnel in many aspects of their work.  Broadband networks provide police forces with the capability of continuous two-way communications between command centres and police in vehicles with laptop computers equipped with broadband Wi-Fi data access.  This allows for real-time high-bandwidth applications, such as the exchange of information, images and reports on stolen vehicles, missing persons, identification of individuals, maps and layouts of buildings, and monitoring of high-risk situations and personnel using full-motion video.

Broadband has numerous applications to assist other emergency service personnel in responding to accidents, incidents and other interventions requiring new or specialised information that will enable them to make faster and more informed decisions.  It also allows for greater protection of emergency service workers through improved communications and decision-making between the command centre and the individuals in the field. As an example, broadband technology can be used to provide accurate three-dimensional positioning that can be used to locate the exact position of a fire fighter in a burning building.[xxv]

The importance of broadband to public safety and more specifically in the case of a critical disaster was most visibly demonstrated by the events that occurred in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  The breakdown of the existing telecommunications infrastructure and lack of inter-operability of systems greatly hampered the relief operations because of the inability of residents and agencies to communicate.  Voluntary organisations played an important role in providing essential communications services through wireless connectivity to the Internet and the efforts of people like Sascha Meinrath, Project Coordinator, Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network and others deserve special recognition for their work.

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