The AFST Working Group was created to update the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee (PSWAC) Report, written in 1996 to document public safety's spectrum and technology needs through 2010. The Working Group will identify the public safety user communications requirements for the next 10 years, from 2010 to 2020. The Working Group will deliver a final report that will identify the spectrum and technology required to meet user requirements and to help drive policy on spectrum, funding, and other issues; standards development; and the public safety vendor community.

This report must accurately reflect the spectrum and communications technology needs of public safety. Therefore, we need volunteers ranging from public safety practitioners to technologists to build the case for our desired future. Several hundred professionals participated in the PSWAC report and we anticipate needing similar participation for this report. We need volunteers from each public safety discipline (law enforcement, fire, EMS, transportation, health, etc.). If you wish to participate, please submit your contact information on the Working Group Volunteer Form on the upper right of this page, under Working Group Links and Contacts. If you do not have the time to participate directly in the working group, please take the time to send an email to AFSTInput@npstc.org and share your thoughts about public safety's spectrum and technology needs through 2020 as well as your contact information so that we can follow-up.

The Working Group will manage and integrate the following tasks:

• Establish overall plan including deliverables, meeting schedules, project schedule, and Task Group assignments.
• Integrate interoperability needs and transition needs to each Task Group.
• Publish final report and presentations by the end of 2010.

The Working Group is further divided into three Task Groups – Operations, Technical, and Spectrum – and will focus on the following tasks:

• Operations Task Group
  • Develop user needs questionnaire to solicit unmet public safety needs or expectations for the next 10 years.
  • Publish user needs questionnaire results.
• Technical Task Group
  • Assess current technology.
  • Investigate technologies available over the 2010 – 2020 timeframe.
  • Identify future standards development.
• Spectrum Task Group
  • Assess current spectrum usage.
  • Develop updated spectrum needs models.
  • Identify spectrum requirements and potential solutions to meeting public safety spectrum needs.