Monday, July 26, 2010
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission stumbled as it tried to create a nationwide wireless broadband network for police officers, firefighters and emergency medical workers, delaying the construction of what everyone agrees is an urgently needed system.
Now the agency is hoping to rework the plan, which relies on a prime slice of airwaves called the D Block. But many public-safety officials say the commission is, once again, going about it the wrong way.
In 2008, the FCC attempted to auction off the block to the wireless industry, with a requirement that the winning bidder help build out a sturdy communications network that would be shared with first responders and give them priority in an emergency. But those conditions proved too onerous, and the auction failed to attract any serious bidders.
So this time around, the agency hopes to auction off the D Block to wireless carriers and use the proceeds — projected to be as much as $4 billion — to help pay for a public-safety network on a separate slice of spectrum already set aside for first-responder broadband use. In frequency terms, the existing public-safety airwaves are right next door to the D Block and just as big. Both pieces of spectrum were freed up in last year’s transition from analog to digital TV signals.
The existing public-safety block, the FCC says, provides plenty of capacity for day-to-day operations — letting first responders access everything from surveillance video to fingerprint databases using laptops and handheld devices in the field. And in an emergency, the FCC proposal would give public-safety users priority access to the D Block and other airwaves from the digital transition.
But the FCC proposal has run into fierce resistance from public-safety leaders who warn that their current spectrum holdings are not big enough to meet their needs.
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