Industry representatives gathered at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a two-day workshop regarding the possible creation of receiver standards to minimize interference and enable more efficient use of spectrum. Dale Hatfield, former chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology and advocate on this issue was a key moderator on many of the panels. Read more »

Following closely on the heels of the release of a joint bipartison draft by Senate Commerce last week, Sens. McCain and Lieberman have reintroduced the "Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011" to allocate (rather than auction) the 700 MHz D Block spectrum to public safety for the creation of a nationwide public safety broadband network.  A mark-up of the Senate Commerce draft bill, originally scheduled for May 25, has been postponed until the week of June 6th.  

Both bills dictate that public safety retain priority access, a virtual nonstarter for utilities and other critical infrastructure who may be considering a partnership with public safety in the network build-out and operations because their communications could be preempted during emergencies.  While provisions would allow non-public safety entities  to access the spectrum and the network on a fee basis, the requirements for backward compatibiity with 2G and 3G networks and for roaming onto and interoperability with commercial networks also work to effectively preclude utility participation. 

UTC continues to stress the benefits of allowing utility involvement: 1) UTC's communications spending study soon to be released indicates  that utilities will invest more than $3B in 2011 on communications related infrastructure and equipment, monies which could be leveraged to help defray the costs of the PS network; 2) Utilities as network users would expand the potential equipment market, bringing down costs; 3) Utilities would more rapidly build-out coverage to rural areas; and 4) Utility use would mean greater spectrum efficiency.  Read more »

During an Interoperability Forum held on Friday, March 4, 2011, Erika Olsen, Special Counsel to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau pleaded for parties to submit legal arguments to support the secondary use of the 700 MHz public safety spectrum including utilities and other critical infrastructure industries. Olsen explained that the FCC is revisiting this issue in light of statements of support by certain public safety entities who want to promote coordination of emergency response, spread costs and share infrastructure. She stressed that while policy arguments are very important, even the most compelling arguments do not trump the law. She went on to explain how section 337(f) of the communications act requires that the "sole or primary purpose" of public safety services must be to protect life, health or property, and that parties should explain how the FCC could allow secondary use consistent with this limiting language in the statute. She clarified that section 337(f)(1)(B) also requires the licensees must be governmental entities or nongovernmental entities that are authorized by a public safety entity and that parties should explain how to ensure that such authorizations that are obtained are legitimate. She informed the audience that section 337(f) requires the public safety services be made commercially available to the public and that parties should explain how commercial arrangements comport with this language. Finally, she described that section 337(a) allocates 36 MHz for commercial services and 24 MHz for public safety services and that parties should explain how allowing access to the 24 MHz of public safety spectrum by commercial entities can be accomplished consistent with the limiting language in the statute. Olsen closed by reiterating her plea to refresh the record for the legal and factual support to support secondary access to the 700 MHz spectrum.

President Barack Obama signed a memorandum titled ‘Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution’ that collaborates with the Federal Communications Commission to making an additional 500MHz of government and commercial spectrum available mobile and fixed wireless broadband use in the next 10 years. This goal of getting 500MHz spectrum in the hands of wireless broadband providers over the next decade is a key part of the National Broadband Plan that the FCC presented to Congress earlier this year. Read more »

As anticipated since the release of its National Broadband Plan, the FCC granted over 20 waivers to public safety agencies for local or regional access to the 700 MHz public safety broadband spectrum (763-768 MHz and 793-798 MHz). The waiver allow the agencies to proceed with building their own wireless broadband networks in advance of the design and deployment of a nationwide broadband public safety network in the band. The FCC states that “by enabling early deployment in this band, we take a major step towards development of a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband wireless network.” While utilities could potentially partner with these public safety agencies to build out a joint network, there are several restrictions associated with licenses in these bands. Read more »

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-United States of America (IEEE-USA) filed a letter to both the FCC and NTIA on May 6, 2010, seeking to revive an effort that would provide a defined harmful interference metric. The standards organization states that "the intent of this letter is to offer suggestions to both agencies to improve the transparency and speed of spectrum allocation decisions. These suggestions focus on how the two agencies can develop a more transparent framework for making “harmful interference” determinations."

The letter comes on the heels of the rapidly moving spectrum inventory legislation making its way through Congress. IEEE-USA states that any spectrum inventory that seeks to reallocate spectrum must have a clear definition of harmful interference to ensure protection of incumbent users. Failing to define interference could deadlock spectrum reallocation and the IEEE-USA letter cites a few examples. Read more »

The May issue of MissionCritical Communications magazine will feature my article discussing the similarities in the ongoing analysis of broadband requirements currently underway by both utilities and public safety. Both groups are actively reviewing use cases that describe specific communications events in order to determine bandwidth, reliability and security requirements for a nationwide broadband network.

We would like to encourage you to browse the May issue of MissionCritical Communications and read this article on page 22. Click here. You are also invited to subscribe to MissionCritical Communications magazine, the leading information resource on wireless voice and data solutions for mission-critical operations. For a FREE subscription, click here: 

Under the auspices of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative (OBI), the FCC released a white paper to provide insight and support to the Broadband Plan’s public funding recommendations for a nationwide inter-operable public safety broadband wireless network.

The key model being recommended for use by this paper is that of an incentive-based partnership model that promotes the use of a 700 MHz Long Term Evolution (LTE) network by partnering with commercial operators or other systems integrators in an assigned 10 MhZ of spectrum from the 700 block. Such an arrangement would lead to “significant cost and operating efficiencies”. Read more »

The European Utilities Telecom Council (EUTC) argued that allocating spectrum for utilities for intelligent communications networks, such as Smart Grids, would support other community goals, especially energy targets, and the Copenhagen Agenda. EUTC was participating in the first multi-annual Radio Spectrum Policy Summit hosted by the European Commission and the European Parliament 22-23 March in Brussels.

EUTC also challenged the EU and EuroParl to consider the carbon implications of spectrum allocation decisions, which currently appears to be overlooked. EUTC was represented by its Director, Peter Moray, and its Special Spectrum Advisor, Adrian Grilli, Managing Director of the Joint Radio Company (UK). The chairman of the new European Radio Spectrum Policy Group comprising national telecoms regulators was on the platform, plus various dignitaries from national governments, including the Belgium Minister for Telecoms as the host nation, the Spanish Minister for Telecoms representing the Presidency, plus the Swedish State Secretary for telecoms. The joint hosts were the Digital Agenda Commissioner Mrs. Neelie Kroes (Netherlands) on behalf of the Commission, plus various MEPs from across Europe who shared the Parliament's role. Read more »