900 MHz is ideally suited for the size towns and cities we have in the upper Midwest, but many agencies want to better understand why 900 MHz is a better public safety solution than cellular.  Here are some things to consider:

1. You can own, operate and manage your 900 MHz network and not be at the mercy of a third party, non-public safety entity when problems occur.

2. The cellular network is used by the general public, including residents of your town, travelers on highways and interstates, and visitors at conventions and sporting events, and they are now being routinely used by the younger generations to download large video and music files.  These uses are increasing congestion on the commercial networks.

3. There is less security on cellular networks.  Maintaining VPNs and session persistence has been a problem

4. Your local cellular provider probably has to trunk to another regional center to make your system work, thus increasing your vulnerability.

5. What are the points of failure of the commercial service network?  Will your carrier provide you with detailed network diagrams identifying their points of vulnerability?

6. When the commercial cellular network goes down or has interruptions, you don't have the ability to restore and reconfigure it.  The rule of thumb is that the bigger the network, the less resilient it is under stress.

7. You have the ability to contractually guarantee service response time with your private 900 network.  Will cellular carriers provide service response time guarantees in writing?

8. With private systems you're able to reduce or eliminate your dependency on external fiber/connections.  Major incidents outside your jurisdiction won't interrupt your network.

9. Many cellular companies are having extreme financial difficulty.  Some acquisitions have been failures, product lines and technologies have been dropped and build-out/improvement schedules delayed while the industry is trying to settle.  The longevity of solutions are doubtful.

10. Costs - Cellular solutions are less capital intensive, but on-going operating costs rise proportionally with each added user.  Conversely, additional users/departments can be added to private systems with minimal impact on operating costs.