UTC was in attendance at the first meeting of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s Emergency Response Interoperability Council Public Safety Advisory Committee (ERIC PSAC) held this week which mainly dealt with organizational issues. During the meeting, the ERIC PSAC formed working groups in four main areas and assigned representatives and chairs to each of the WG's.

The four WG's and the chairs are as follows: 1) Interoperability - Jackie Miller (NM Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department), Doug Aiken (International Municipal Signal Association.), and Ajit Kahaduwe (Nokia); 2) Application and User Requirements -- Bill Schrier (Seattle Department of IT), Mark Hill (Gila River Indian Community), and Dennis Martinez (Harris); 3) Security and Authentication - Stacy Black (AT&T), Kenneth Zdunek (Illinois Institute of Technology); and 4) Network Evolution - Ken Budka (Alcatel-Lucent), and Paul Steinberg (Motorola). The FCC wants the ERIC PSAC to report back to the FCC with recommendations on the issues raised in the FCC's Fourth Further NPRM (06-229) and it suggested mid-May as a target date. That prompted many in the room to ask if the FCC would be willing to grant an extension of time, which is an indication that the participants do not believe that they can meet that deadline. In addition to opening remarks from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the meeting featured presentations from FCC staff, which covered legal and policy issues. Specifically, the FCC staff explained how the Federal Advisory Committee Act rules would apply to the PSAC, but the staff also explained that the WG's would not be subject to the rules and would be able to meet informally and in closed door sessions. The FCC staff also discussed the policy issues that the PSAC should address and highlighted the question of eligibility for utilities and others to access the 700 MHz public safety broadband spectrum.

On the eve of the meeting, UTC issued a press release that criticized the FCC for excluding utilities and other critical infrastructure industries from membership in the ERIC PSAC. The press release questioned how the FCC could do this considering utilities are potential partners with public safety in 700 MHz broadband networks. In opposition to the FCC, Bill Moroney, President and CEO of UTC, stated that promoting partnerships with public safety would promote "more efficient restoration of power and water to more quickly restore societal and economic normalcy, better coordination with public safety, and lower costs to taxpayers by leveraging existing and planned utility infrastructure, especially in the more rural parts of the country that have yet to see reliable cell service." The press release was reported by several industry trade publications, and an unnamed FCC source reportedly responded that utilities and CII "are not clearly defined as public safety entities that would be permitted to use the 700 MHz public safety interoperable broadband network once constructed." The FCC source added that "We currently have an open proceeding that asks about this very issue to determine how best to address their concerns. We look forward to working with public utilities on this issue going forward.” For more information, contact the UTC Legal/Regulatory Department.