While key House Homeland Security Committee members appear to back Federal Communications Commission efforts to revise D-Block rules, the panel’s hearing brought to surface differences among lawmakers, first responders and others over critical issues – especially the licensing approach – a week before telecom regulators vote to put a new auction plan officially into play.
The initiative – championed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in the aftermath of the D-Block failure at the 700 auction earlier this year and set for consideration at the scheduled Sept. 25 open meeting – appears to address much of the criticism leveled by policymakers and major stakeholders over the past six months. Still, fundamental disputes remain over how to fix a public-safety interoperability problem that gained infamy after the 9/11 attacks. It appears unlikely Martin’s D-Block plan will satisfy all parties.
Martin, however, can take comfort in knowing that as the Republican-led agency moves the D-Block overhaul forward, it will have political cover from key members of the Democratic-controlled Congress.
“We must invest in communications systems that have the substantial participation of public safety. That is why the public-private partnership of the D Block would truly reflect how the spectrum can be shared among commercial and public-safety users on a network that meets the needs of the first-responder communities,” stated Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland subcommittee on emergency communications, preparedness and response at the Sept. 16 hearing. “The bottom line is that we must have the commitment of all the key players to make the public-safety network buildout on the 700 MHz more than just a concept.”
New blueprints
The Martin D-Block blueprint keeps the hybrid licensing model intact, lowers financial bidding barriers, includes national and regional licensing options (the latter allowing for LTE and WiMAX technologies), provides relaxed and flexible network construction requirements and instills greater clarity and certainty regarding the relationship and obligations of first responders and commercial entities. The re-auction of the D Block was left stranded when no bidder came close to meeting the national license’s $1.3 billion minimum price during the 700 MHz auction.
“The public-private partnership is crucial to a successful re-auction of the public-safety spectrum,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). “Congress expects that government, public-safety and commercial entities will cooperate fully to give first responders the additional spectrum that is needed to facilitate emergency communication.”
The D Block would pair 10 megahertz of commercial spectrum with 12 megahertz of public-safety spectrum in a 700 MHz band highly regarded and valued by the private sector and first responders alike because of the airwaves’ strong propagation characteristics.
Derek Poarch, chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, told lawmakers the agency wants to adopt final rules by year’s end and conduct the auction in mid-2008.
Worry over weak standards
To be sure, attracting private-sector partners to team up with public safety in a highly capital-intensive undertaking is a delicate balancing act. In proposing to extend the license term from 10 to 15 years (with benchmarks at years four, 10 and 15) and pursuing other reforms, the Martin plan has prompted grumbling about the potential for diluting public-safety’s gold standard for communications.
“Public safety cannot allow that to happen,” stated Charles Dowd, deputy chief of the New York Police Department. “Weakening of the standards, priority [access] or coverage requirements, will only serve to drive public safety away from the system altogether. Public safety needs to maintain its more stringent requirements which cops and firefighters need and will expect.”
Dowd said efforts and investment should be geared toward shifting FCC-mandated narrowband voice to 700 MHz broadband spectrum, offering to conduct a proof-of-concept trial using 20 megahertz of 700 MHz spectrum to determine the feasibility of a converged voice-data broadband solution in the band.
David Boyd, head of the command, control and interoperability division in the Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology unit, said 700 MHz frequencies should not be viewed as replacement spectrum for public-safety agencies but rather as complementary to first responders’ existing radio channels.
Timing issues
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said she worries about the length of time it would take before public agencies actually achieve interoperability under the Martin plan.
“Fifteen years is a long time,” said Lowey, referring to the proposal to lengthen the license term. Noting the record $19 billion-plus raised by the U.S. government in the 700 MHz auction, Lowey asked why the FCC couldn’t simply give 700 MHz spectrum directly to cities and states so they could pursue public-safety broadband solutions at their own pace.
The FCC’s Poarch pointed out many public-safety agencies lack funding to deploy 700 systems. Moreover, it is unclear – some say claim downright doubtful – that taking such a fragmented approach would meet the primary goal of nationwide interoperability for voice communications and a level of broadband capability necessary to support streaming video and other bandwidth-intensive applications.
“I just don’t see how this second round will prove a greater success than the last round,” Lowey stated, wondering out-loud whether the FCC had a Plan C if the D Block re-auction flops.
A strained united front
The hearing also brought into full light fissures in a public-safety community that has strained to present a united front in D-Block advocacy before the FCC and Congress. But the show of unity increasingly appears to have begun to melt away.
“It is important to stress that New York is not the only jurisdiction desiring additional control and flexibility to define the terms of the public-private partnership in its own geography,” the NYPD’s Dowd told lawmakers. “The cities of San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., all filed comments with the FCC seeking a greater degree of local control.”
The Association of Public Safety Officials, represented at the hearing by president-elect Richard Mirgon, supports the public-private partnership approach for developing a national network.
Mirgon devoted part of his congressional testimony to what APCO regards as deficiencies with the PSST, the non-profit public safety broadband licensee (PSBL) whose adviser/agent is Cyren Call Communications Corp.
Martin’s plan would forbid the PSST from acting as a mobile virtual network operator, establish a funding mechanism for the PSST as well as impose structural safeguards regarding its relationship with Cyren Call, and put in place price controls to prevent public-safety and commercial licensees from gouging each other.
