While the Senate Commerce Committee is expected to approve a bill allocating the 700 MHz D block to public safety on June 8, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has only just begun consideration of the issue, holding the first of four hearings on Wednesday, May 25, 2011.   

Witness at the hearing included representatives from the ARRL (ham radio), Motorola, Harris, Direction (representing commercial interests), Telephone and Data Systems, and the Public Safety Alliance (PSA).  Read more »

The cost of constructing a nationwide public safety broadband network was the topic of discussion in a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing held on Wednesday. At the center of the discussion were the provisions in the Senator Jay Rockefeller’s (D-WV) legislation, S-28. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee also shared her plans to introduce legislation that would reallocate the D block to public safety and provide a mix of grants and zero-interest loans to construct the public safety network. Meanwhile, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski told the House Communications Subcommittee at an FCC oversight hearing held at the same time as that of Senate Commerce Committee that he still supports the commercial auction of the D-Block, a position that was re-iterated by Commissioner Robert McDowell. Commissioner Meredith Baker has supported an auction but thinks reallocation “is a viable option. Meanwhile, Commissioner Michael Copps and Commissioner Clyburn noted that they were looking at Congress with regards to the issue. The Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) criticized the FCC for being slow to auction the D-Block, even though “the law explicitly calls on [it] to do [so].
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Late this afternoon, Rep. Pete King, Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced HR 607, a bill to allocate the 700 D block spectrum to public safety for the creation of a broadband nationwide interoperable emergency response network.  Significant changes have been made to provisions in prior bills introduced in the last Congress which address many of the concerns of utilities regarding their ability to partner with public safety in the network build-out and operations.  In particular, the bill directs the FCC to establish regulations to authorize shared use of the public safety broadband spectrum and network infrastructure by non-public safety entities under network sharing agreements.  Notably, Utilities Telecom Council is given a seat on the Board of Directors of the Public Safety Broadband Licensee in recognition of the synergies between utilities and public safety in terms of network operational requirements, including reliability under extreme conditions, particularly those weather-related, and coverage in rural areas. 

Issues do remain, however, regarding the requirement that public safety retain priority access.  That requirement may serve to limit the practical value for utility participation in network buildout and access if utilities could be kicked off the network when they need it the most – when the power goes out and coordination with public safety is critical to the emergency response and power restoration efforts. Moreover, even though utilities perform critical life saving activities following both natural and manmade disasters, there are limitations contained in this much improved bill which may undermine the economics of utilities being able to share the massive infrastructure investments required.Momentum for the allocation of the 700 D block to public safety seems to be building, with the announcement last week of Administration's support.  Hearings are scheduled for February 16 by the Senate Commerce Committee on a bill introduced by Sen. Rockefeller which also allocates the D block to public safety.  Of note:  2011 is the tenth anniversary of 9-11, when the inability of public safety to communicate with each other resulted in lives lost. 

During a recent committee hearing, the Senate Commerce Committee chairman, Sen. Rockefeller (WV), expressed his passionate support for providing public safety (PS) the spectrum its needs to build a nationwide interoperable broadband communications network. His bill, S. 3756, would allocate the 10 Mhz known as the 700 D block (758 – 763 Mhz and 788-793 Mhz) to be combined with that already allocated to PS (763-768 Mhz and 793-788 Mhz) to provide sufficient bandwidth for a nationwide interoperable PS broadband network. Network build-out and on-going operational costs would be provided in part through AWS auction proceeds and incentive auctions of voluntarily relinquished spectrum. Read more »

HR 5081, introduced Tuesday, April 20 by Rep. Pete King, takes the 10 MHz of 700-D block spectrum off the auction block and allocates it directly to public safety. Paired with 10MHz of the 24 MHz in the 700 band previously allocated to public safety, it would be used to create a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network for emergency communications.

While shared use of the public safety broadband spectrum is authorized, public safety users retain priority access, relegating non-public safety users (undefined under bill) to secondary status. Emergency response providers as defined by the Homeland Security Act (emergency public safety, fire, law enforcement, emergency response, emergency medical, including hospital emergency facilities), and related personnel, agencies, and authorities) are specifically designated as authorized users of the network. Moreover, the bill directs the FCC to encourage public safety to consider using existing or planned commercial communications infrastructure.

In sum, the licensee/user class is clearly defined as “public safety,” “first responders” and “emergency response providers.” Coupled with the preference for commercial infrastructure, the bill as introduced does not include utilities as part of this nationwide interoperable emergency broadband network, either in terms of build-out, shared use, or access.