The House Subcommittee on Communications of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a mark-up of spectrum legislation introduced by Rep. Walden (R-OR) which includes provisions for non-public safety entities to access the 700 MHz public safety broadband network - a key issue for utilities. The bill, entitled the "Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum Act of 2011" or the "JOBS Act of 2011," provides that each State may negotiate with private sector entities to construct, manage, maintain and operate the network. Furthermore, the private sector partners could be allowed under contract to access the network to provide services that are not "public safety services," as well as to share infrastructure (including antennas and towers) with public safety entities. In addition, the bill provides that the Administrator of the National Public Safety Communications Plan may contract with non-public safety entities to permit access in order to promote interoperability between those non-public safety entities and public safety entities during emergencies.
Thus, there are effectively two options for utilities and other non-public safety entities to access the 700 MHz public safety broadband network (i.e. through partnership or contract), but there are conditions.

For example, the bill provides that States shall partner with commercial mobile service providers to construct, operate, and maintain the network, and that States shall give additional consideration for partnerships that include both commercial service providers and utilities. The implication is that utilities can only partner with public safety if they partner with a commercial service provider, as well. As such, partnering with a commercial service provider is one condition for utilities that want to partner with public safety. Under the second option, if a utility wanted to contract with the Administrator, it would only be able to get access during emergencies (or drills) on a secondary, preemptible basis (i.e. the utility communications could be subject to lesser priority and/or complete preemption of communications by the communications by the public safety partner).
A different bill introduced by Reps. Waxman (D-CA) and Eshoo (D-CA), entitled The "Wireless Innovation and Public Safety Act of 2011" also allows for emergency access to the network by non-public safety entities, and it would permit partnerships with private entities that would have access to the network to provide communications services that are not public safety services and that would be able to share infrastructure with public safety entities. The provisions for contractual access during emergencies include the same conditions as the JOBS Act introduced by Rep. Walden, but the partnership provisions in the Waxman-Eshoo bill do not require the private entity to work through a commercial mobile service provider or commercial mobile data provider in order to partner with public safety to build, operate, manage or maintain the network.
UTC staff has continued to work with committee staff to underscore the benefits of utility/public safety partnerships in building and operating the PSBN. Those benefits include leveraging existing infrastructure, capital resources that utilities will be investing to meet their communications needs and better coordination of public safety and utilities during emergency response.
Subcommittee action comes on the heels of the failure of the Super Committee to produce a deficit reduction package which many believed would also include spectrum provisions. Full committee consideration is expected before the end of the year.