D-Block: It’s Done; Congress Pays
The FCC today recommended a plan for a public/private partnership public-safety network, though the partnership is different than the one the FCC pursued in the failed 700 MHz D Block auction two years ago, notes Urgent Communications.
Two years ago, a segment of the 700 MHz frequency band, the “D Block”, failed to attain the $1.3 billion minimum price. The original plan was to combine 10 MHz of public service radio frequencies and 12 Mhz of commercial cellular service into a new joint public/private partnership, available to both parties. But the requirements of 24/7, ubiquitous radio coverage turned out to be too onerous for potential bidders.
Bids fell short of the FCC’s $1.3 billion minimum price. That auction was “doomed to fail” because it placed huge financial risks on bidders, a Verizon Wireless executive told Congress.
The new national broadband plan will recommend that Congress allocate between $12 billion and $16 billion over 10 years for a grant program that would allow public safety to build out. Like the old plan, it will combine 10 MHz of spectrum licensed to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) in concert with commercial carriers’ LTE deployments.
The plan calls for the D Block winner and other commercial carriers operating in the 700 MHz band — most notably, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, which dominated the 700 MHz auction conducted two years ago — to deploy LTE networks and provide roaming and priority access to public-safety users.
By deciding what to do with the D-Block, the FCC can move forward with building a nationwide wireless communications system for police, ambulances and firefighters, as well as U.S. and state agencies who deal with disasters and emergencies, says Reuters.
“Rather than solely focusing on just the D Block … public safety isn’t limited to 10 or even 20 MHz of spectrum, but could have access to as much as 80 MHz under these arrangements,” Genachowski said.
Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, said the plan is to also allow public safety workers access to the entire 700 megahertz band when necessary (pdf):
If public safety has the ability to roam and obtain priority access on commercial networks, it can roam on commercial networks in areas where public safety’s own network facilities have not yet been built or are otherwise unavailable. And priority access provides a means for public safety to use additional spectrum capacity in addition to its own dedicated spectrum.
This could be critical in times of emergency, when public safety entities may want to shift non-emergency traffic to other networks in order to reserve their own network and dedicated spectrum for mission-critical communications.
“The private sector simply is not going to build a nationwide, state-of-the-art, interoperable broadband network for public safety on its own dime,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at a briefing with reporters.
It could also save Oregon taxpayers some $414 million building an already “obsolete”, non-broadband, non-LTE compatible radio network, dedicated only to first responders. Currently Oregon plans on spending more than $400 million of taxpayer money to build a state-wide, 700 MHz radio network for first responders.
Oregon’s Wireless Interoperability Network (above) was a slow motion train wreck from the start. They expected State Government to build their $500M network and the Feds to buy them P-25 radios (with essentially no map, photo or data capabilities). State authorities may still try to make a case, but the evidence is now pretty conclusive — no matter how much money they spend on a dedicated, narrow-band network, it will be folded into the joint public/private system — and provide universal broadband access for all states and citizens.
Many other states, such as New York, had a similar dilemma in providing public service communications state-wide. New York eventually killed their $2B state-wide public service network.
U.S. public safety agencies support LTE technology for a proposed nationwide public safety network on the 700 MHz radio band. Washington, D.C. will test the 700 MHz broadband network licensed to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) this summer, if vendors have equipment ready by then.
“To achieve the goal of national interoperability, we need to deploy a single technology everywhere, and public safety has identified Long Term Evolution (LTE) as that technology,” said Bryan Sivak, the District’s chief technology officer.
Public safety workers have already been allocated one-eighth of the 700 megahertz band of the spectrum. That portion could be developed under a public-private partnership. The LTE spectrum would add priority access (as needed for public safety users) with cellular broadband as well as programmable push-to-talk call groups.
Genachowski said the plan includes creating an Emergency Response Interoperability Center at the FCC to establish better communications among the array of emergency workers, including hospitals.
Plans to auction the airwaves and establish an emergency network will be part of recommendations to be made in the National Broadband Plan the FCC will release next month.
The plan will also propose reallocating spectrum, including some held by broadcasters, to wireless companies anticipating a shortage, as more Americans surf the Internet on their mobile devices.
The aim of the national blueprint, which is expected to make short- and long-term recommendations, is to help all Americans get access to broadband and establish very fast Internet speeds in most American households by 2020.
