The Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) program has been attracting a great deal of interest since the beginning of the year, and rightly so. It represents the most significant single-year financial commitment of the federal government to first responder interoperability and it is a one-time opportunity with no immediate plans for renewal in the coming years.
Despite its prominence, though, many elements of the program have yet to be defined, including the technologies that will be funded, the guidance that will be provided to states passing on the funds and the administrative roles of the federal agencies participating in the program. Todd Sedmak, communications director for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the arm of the Department of Commerce with statutory authority to administer the program, observed, “It’s definitely a fluid time right now.”
