This summer’s wildfire season in Colorado continues to place a spotlight on the state’s communications infrastructure and the need for consistent, capable and reliable networks. As residents and first responders have found time and again, dependable connectivity via mobile device is the key to more reliable emergency response. Whether it’s calling for help or sending evacuation alerts, all-clear signals and traffic advisories, mobile networks have proven essential to sharing critical safety information efficiently.

Over the past decade, mobile connectivity has become paramount to public safety, specifically disaster mitigation and response. Today, 80 percent of 911 calls to police, firefighters, and other first responders are initiated on mobile phones. Further, “mobile alerts” have become the default method for first responders to notify the public of critical real-time safety information – these alerts are now utilized for everything from active shooter to weather to missing child emergencies.

The most obvious example of connectivity being at the heart of emergency service is the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system, which enables government officials to target emergency alerts to specific geographic areas – Denver’s LoDo, for example. Since its launch in 2012, the WEA system has been used more than 33,000 times nationwide to alert Americans of potential dangerous situation via mobile phone.

It’s no secret that the demand for mobile connectivity is growing exponentially in Denver and across the Unites States. According the Centers for Disease Control, over half of American households are wireless only and the average household has 13 connected devices – and this is just the tip of the iceberg. As smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices become more advanced and new technologies like 5G enable lightning-fast data speeds, the appetite for mobile will only continue to grow. According to Cisco, in North America alone mobile data traffic will reach 6.4 Exabytes per month by 2021 (the equivalent of 1,599 million DVDs each month).

Understanding the reality that we are only going to become increasingly reliant on mobile connectivity for safety, the natural question becomes, what must be done to ensure these systems don’t fail? While there is no silver bullet to make these systems fail-proof, there are common sense upgrades to our communications infrastructure that must take place to minimize the likelihood of a breakdown.

To deal with the increased data traffic, we must modernize our existing infrastructure to handle more capacity by supplementing existing infrastructure with small antenna or nodes known as small cell solutions or just “small cells” for short. Small cells are exactly what they sound like, small low powered antennas located near the end user, usually on a utility pole or streetlight, that add much needed capacity to our existing networks.

While small cell networks will certainly make videos, texts and games download faster which has broad economic implications, the real value of creating a robust and resilient wireless network is in times of crisis. The ability to call for help or to reach a loved one to make sure they are safe during a disaster is unquantifiable.

A recent example of small cells at work during in a disaster can be found in Houston, Texas. Houston upgraded the city’s wireless infrastructure for the February, 2017 Super Bowl, however that network also helped with emergency communications just seven months later when Hurricane Harvey hit the city. Metrics show that the long-term investments in permanent infrastructure improvements made by the wireless industry increased both network resiliency and performance.

The good news is that companies are already deploying small cell infrastructure in Denver. Major wireless carriers and communication infrastructure companies alike are deploying nodes across the city.

Another benefit of small cell infrastructure upgrades is the technology will serve as the backbone for future networks such as 5G, which promise to turn innovations including IoT (the Internet of Things), autonomous vehicles, and citywide data sharing into reality.

Finding better ways to employ mobile technology that ensures Coloradoans remain safe during an emergency needs to be a top priority for our community leaders. But we need the infrastructure to take advantage of that. Our communities deserve access to the best communication tools available when they need it the most.

Dan McVaugh

President, Colorado Wireless Association

By: Colorado Business Roundtable President Jeff Wasde

One year ago nearly 4.4 million passengers flew in and out of Denver International Airport during December. Whether visiting family and friends, traveling for work, or enjoying a ski vacation, most of these people did not give even a moment of thought to air traffic control. And that’s the way it should be.

Denver International Airport is the fifth busiest commercial airport in the United States, with 1,550 daily flights to more than 180 countries. There is a good reason for that: Colorado is home to some of the nation’s leading companies in diverse fields from aerospace to energy to biomedicine; we are also a major tourist destination. However, getting in and out of Colorado could be made safer and more efficient with proposed legislation that would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, and specifically, modernize our nation’s astonishingly outdated air traffic control (ATC) system.

Flying remains the safest way to travel, but that might be in spite of our current national air traffic control system rather than because of it. Most Coloradans would be stunned to learn that some of the technology currently being used at our nation’s busiest airports is more than 50 years old, but sadly, that is the case.

Antiquated equipment isn’t the only problem. The FAA currently can’t recruit, hire, train, and retain enough air traffic controllers to meet the needs of travelers and shippers. Further exacerbating the problem is that one third of the nearly 11,000 certified air traffic controllers are eligible to retire.

Congressional budget battles have made it difficult for the agency to help move the air traffic control system into the 21st century. Even when well-funded, the beleaguered FAA is stuck with an archaic procurement system. For example, upgrades to air traffic control systems that are scheduled for completion in the coming year were designed 18 years ago. What other technology-driven enterprise updates to equipment from the heyday of Windows 95?

We can solve this problem by putting the air traffic control system under new management – a not-for-profit organization that is independent of the federal government.

Under this proposal, the FAA would retain safety and regulatory oversight while ATC services would be performed by an independent organization funded through transparent user fees based on actual operating costs. Financing would go toward priorities that deliver results for the flying public – not pet political projects. No longer could budget fights in Washington, D.C. threaten to shut down or reduce air traffic control services across the country.

The U.S. air traffic control network must be modernized to better handle a growing volume of flights. How many of us have faced airport delays? Using the best current technologies, many of these delays could be reduced or eliminated, while creating efficiencies that allow investment in additional safety measures.

Handing control of air traffic management to a nongovernmental agency is neither a new idea nor untested. It’s an accepted practice around the world. The United Kingdom uses a model that has significantly reduced ATC-related flight delays. Canada is using more advanced technology to guide aircraft. Dozens of other countries have made this shift.

The proposed not-for-profit management of air traffic control would be governed by a board of directors representing key stakeholders: cargo shippers, general aviation users, air traffic controllers, airlines, the Pentagon, and the general public. The board would have a mandate to develop and operate a world-class system driven by high quality professionals and cutting edge technology – while maintaining safety and expanding access to users large and small. It would not be another government establishment with a novel name.

None of us want to have to think about air traffic control when we’re at the airport. We certainly don’t want to hear the pilot come on the intercom and tell us we’re the twelfth plane waiting for takeoff. With an air traffic control system that provides better technology and more controllers, we won’t have to. And everyone will benefit.