A senior Homeland Security Department official said July 27 that the government should hold off for now on a commercial auction for license to a 10 megahertz swath of spectrum.

"At this point, we are saying that we believe that a decision on an auction needs to await some of these technical answers being worked out," said Gregory Schaffer, DHS assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications. Schaffer spoke before a hearing of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on emergency communications, preparedness and response.

The 10 MHz at issue is known as the D block spectrum that the Federal Communications Commission is lawfully bound to auction with the proviso that the commercial licensee give public safety priority access to the band during emergencies. Many public safety groups have said that without them controlling the D block license, plans for a national broadband wireless network won't come to fruition. The FCC's position is that public safety's existing 10 MHz broadband license is sufficient. Public safety also controls an additional 12 MHz in the 700 MHz band, although that band is currently dedicated to narrowband voice communication.

The main technical issues Schaffer identified during his testimony are how priority access to the D block would be handled legally and how the technical favoring of public safety communication in the D block would occur.

"We are looking to resolve some of the issues before an auction final decision is made, yes," Schaffer said in response to a question from the subcommittee chairwoman, Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.), on whether "DHS is not supporting the continuation of the auction until these questions are answered." 

On hand to support the FCC position was James Barnett, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's public safety and homeland security bureau. Ten MHz of capacity on a LTE network--which both sides of the debate agree would be the best specification for the D block--are the equivalent of 160 MHz on an traditional land mobile radio network, he said. Further, without private sector market for D block spectrum, the cost of building the network and for end user devices would be such that small and rural communities wouldn't be able to afford connectivity to it, he added.

As for how a private sector D block carrier would favor public safety communications, Barnett noted that LTE's capacity for quality of service favoring of some data packets over others is much greater than previous wireless specifications.

"As soon as they punch the button, packets start flowing," Barnett said.

Richardson made her stance on Barnett's comment clear, when she responded, "I don't think we need public safety to push a button and then they [are] in line. If we have an emergency we may not have time for them to push the button," she added.

For more:
- go to the web hearing page for prepared testimonies, or straight to the webcast

Related Articles:
Public Safety finds D block support in Lieberman, McCain and unexpectedly, Rockefeller
Public safety lobbying hard for D block license
First responder group disputes FCC D block analysis
FCC: D block auction will make first responder network affordable