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New D Block Legislation Could Mean Review of Narrowband Spectrum (7/27/10)
By Sandra Wendelken
Although public safety has made significant gains in its fight for additional 700 MHz broadband spectrum, some lawmakers are asking questions about public safety’s spectrum allocations for narrowband voice and how efficiently it’s being used.
Two pieces of legislation, one only in draft form, address public-safety’s use of narrowband spectrum. Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John McCain’s First Responders Protection Act calls for an FCC report to determine whether public-safety agencies could “end their use of land mobile radio spectrum below 512 MHz” three years after the law is enacted. After five years, the bill requires an FCC study and report to Congress on the spectrum held by the public-safety broadband licensee and whether “more spectrum needs to be made available to meet the needs of public-safety entities and the opportunity to return any spectrum to the commission for auction to commercial providers to provide revenue to the Treasury of the United States.”
“We support the spectrum report called for in McCain’s bill,” said Richard Mirgon, president of the Association of Public Safety Communications (APCO) International. “It will show how piecemeal public-safety spectrum is and that there is no way to use that spectrum long term for broadband. There are other entities between the channels that we have. We believe that a report would clearly substantiate that we don’t have contiguous spectrum for operations.” National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) officials declined to comment on the Lieberman/McCain bill.
Although only in draft form, legislation sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman calls for “flexible spectrum use” and said the FCC should allow “the narrowband spectrum, the guard band spectrum and the unoccupied guard band spectrum to be used in a flexible manner, including for public-safety broadband communications.” The draft legislation permits secondary access to public-safety spectrum — essentially allowing entities to license spectrum from public safety.
The issue of 700 MHz narrowband spectrum being used for broadband applications was addressed at the June NPSTC meeting, and at least one entity has filed a letter against such spectrum re-use with the FCC. The state of Delaware filed a letter recommending the FCC does “not permit broadband operations in the narrowband voice channel spectrum of the 700 MHz frequency band.”
“Without the 700 MHz narrowband voice channels, it would be impossible for Delaware to expand the capacity of the present 800 MHz radio system serving all state and local government first responders within our state,” said the letter signed by Mark Grubb, Delaware’s statewide interoperability coordinator. The state of Maryland also filed a letter in support of the Delaware ex parte filing and agreed with its recommendations.
The Waxman draft legislation language caught the attention of APCO officials, several of whom met with FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell July 21 on the issue. APCO President-Elect William Carrow, APCO First Vice President Greg Riddle and APCO Counsel Robert Gurss “reiterated the need to reallocate the 700 MHz D block for public safety, and also noted the importance of maintaining the 700 MHz narrowband channel allotments” in the meeting.
“APCO notes that all 50 states have statewide licenses to operate narrowband systems in 700 MHz, and many have deployed operations or are planning to do so in the near future,” said a letter to the FCC signed by Gurss. “In addition, there are approximately 286 active site-specific 700 MHz band narrowband licenses issued to state and local governments across the nation.”
APCO officials specifically cited the Harris County, Texas, network for which 700 MHz narrowband equipment is being delivered at a cost of $125 million for about 30,000 users.
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