More Legislation Favoring Repurposing D-Block for Public Safety
There is no shortage of Congressional goodwill for public safety or enthusiasm to repurpose 10 MHz of spectrum known as the D-Block for public safety’s use in a national, interoperable broadband network. The trick remains not on repurposing the spectrum, but how to pay for the construction and maintenance of the network itself, and perhaps more importantly, how to ensure that use of this additional spectrum to be coupled with public safety’s current 10 MHz broadband allocation, is maximized so that multi-billion dollar plus network investments are worth the effort. Public safety’s tremendous success in securing spectrum in the past decades seems to now have a price, and that quid pro quo appears to be the legislative proponents desire to relocate public safety operations in the lower VHF and UHF bands to the 700 MHz broadband network, and 700 MHz and 800 MHz public safety “narrowband” voice allocations.
In this latest iteration, provisions within the “Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011” (S. 1040) as proposed by Senators McCain and Lieberman, would require the FCC on enactment of the legislation, “not to renew any license to use spectrum located on frequencies above 170 MHz and below 512 MHz granted to a public safety licensee,” unless the licensee could demonstrate economic hardship or the ability to continue to protect public safety. Other provisions would require a study after five years on the merits of moving all public safety entities to the 700 MHZ and 800 MHz bands; and after three years, a study to determine which parts of the spectrum above 174 MHz and below 512 MHz used by public safety users could be returned for the Commission for auction purposes.
While it is unlikely that these provisions will survive in their present form, they nevertheless create serious concern on the part of public safety licensees and those that support state and local public safety communication networks.
EWA Seeks FCC Clarification On TETRA Waiver
EWA filed comments with the FCC on May 26 in response to the Commission’s recent rule waiver which would permit the deployment of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) technology in the 450-470 MHz Industrial/Business band with the yet to be explained rationale that such systems “would not likely cause increased interference to adjacent channels users,” and therefore would not require prior frequency coordination if the only change to an existing authorization was to reflect the TETRA emission. Contrary to the FCC’s statement that such applications would not “have an impact on near-term frequency selections,” EWA requested that the FCC specifically clarify that “the frequency coordination exemption in the Order applies only in those cases when an existing incumbent system is converting to TETRA on an exclusive channel.” Otherwise, in a shared spectrum environment and without prior frequency coordination, the potential for harmful interference to and from incumbent operations is almost guaranteed. EWA noted in its comments that this risk is one that even TETRA proponents themselves would want to avoid.
EWA also took exception to the FCC’s statement that earlier responses to the original Waiver Request were “split between supporting and opposing” parties, reminding the Commission that the LMCC, APCO, NPSTC and TIA, which collectively “represent virtually every Part 90 licensee,” had advised against granting the waiver, and instead, opening a Notice of Proposed Rule Making “in which the technical issues could be examined fully.” EWA Press Release