WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission told Congress that it plans to begin examining whether some of the 24 megahertz of spectrum public safety is set to receive as part of the transition to digital TV could be used for a nationwide interoperable broadband network.
“Emergency-response providers would benefit from the development of an integrated interoperable nationwide network capable of delivering broadband services throughout the country,” the agency said.
A group representing public-safety spectrum users said that an interoperable nationwide broadband network requires a lot of spectrum. As such, the group said that should the FCC make such an allocation, it should not permit non-public-safety users access to the band even on a secondary or shared basis. However, the United Telecom Council disagreed, noting that critical-infrastructure industries should have access to the network.
In addition, a consulting firm from Guam, Management Communications Services, said that any public-safety nationwide broadband network needed to be available and accessible to public-safety entities in the U.S. territories and commonwealths.
Any public-safety nationwide broadband network would be expensive, warned the FCC and many public-safety entities.
“While of significant benefit to public safety, implementation of a nationwide interoperable broadband mobile communications network would likely be costly. Consequently, public-safety entities would require adequate funding resources in order to deploy broadband communications systems. Without adequate funding-to purchase equipment and conduct the associated training and coordination-it is likely that public safety would be unable to implement a nationwide, interoperable broadband network,” said the FCC.
In addition to more spectrum and money, a public-safety nationwide broadband network would require coordination at all levels, said the FCC.
“Coordination among federal, state and local emergency-response providers would need to be achieved at virtually every level for an interoperable nationwide network to deliver on its promise,” said the FCC.
The FCC was tasked by Congress to examine the spectrum needs of public safety and whether public safety should use commercial services.
More than 97 megahertz of spectrum is allocated to public safety already, said the FCC.
Public safety would benefit from the use of commercial wireless services, and various entities jumped on the bandwagon to lobby support for their service, solution or product, according to the report.
“While commercial wireless technologies are not appropriate for every type of public-safety communication, there may be a place for commercial providers to assist public safety in securing and protecting the homeland,” said the FCC.
The FCC said that the public-safety community generally opposes using commercial systems, while commercial providers generally favor it. This contrast was also recently on display at a meeting of the FCC’s Network Reliability & Interoperability Council, where NRIC Chairman Timothy Donahue, executive chairman of Sprint Nextel Corp., said public safety should consider partnerships with commercial wireless. Directing a question to RoxAnn Brown, chair of the NRIC VII PSAP/first-responder communications focus group, Donahue said there are opportunities for partnerships between public safety and commercial wireless. Brown acknowledged that some jurisdictions use commercial systems but she said there would always be a need for public safety to have its own system separate from the commercial wireless networks.
