Failure to auction off a 10 megahertz swath of the 700 MHz band to the private sector would result in rural first responders not being able to afford access to a national wireless broadband emergency network, said James Barnett, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's public safety and homeland security bureau.

The FCC contends that public safety's current license of 10 MHz within the 700 MHz band makes the additional 10 MHz--the so-called D block--unnecessary for plans to realize a national interoperable broadband first responder network. The commission, through its National Broadband Plan, proposes auctioning off the D block to the private sector with the proviso that first responders gain priority access to the D block during emergencies. Many public safety officials dislike the plan.

But failure to hold an auction would "nearly destroy the commercial market for equipment and devices for public safety, isolating public safety," Barnett said during a June 17 hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on communications, technology, and the internet. The FCC plan envisions growth of a private sector market for end-user devices that would be compatible with the D block and public safety's existing 10 MHz license.

If that market doesn't materialize, due to there being no customers, costs of building out the network infrastructure would increase by billions of dollars, and that would "create a patchwork system across the country of haves and have-nots. Perhaps some big cities may be able to afford it. Most rural areas will not," Barnett said.

Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)--chairman of the House subcommittee and committee, respectively--both support the FCC plan.  

"While some contend that public safety could lease parts of the D Block to commercial entities and apply the revenue from the leases to build out, maintenance and operational costs, I question whether sufficient revenue from leasing could be realized, particularly in rural areas, to assure funding of the network costs," Boucher said during the hearing.

Waxman is circulating draft legislation that he said would have the government pay for 80 percent of the first responder broadband network's construction costs and 50 percent of the operating costs associated with this network.

During the hearing, Barnett suggested that public safety could gain priority access to not just the D block, but "for up to 40, 50, maybe 60 additional MHz" within Verizon, AT&T and other private-sector license sections of the 700 MHz band, Barnett said. The FCC is studying whether to make first responder roaming access mandatory, subject to carrier compensation, he added.

"It would be mandatory on the carrier if public safety wants to contract with that particular carrier. That's the way that we're looking at, so that it becomes public safety's choice on that. If public safety wants to contract with them, then the carrier would need to provide that," he said.

However, at the hearing, Charles Dowd, deputy chief in the New York City Police Department, expressed skepticism.

Speaking for the Public Safety Alliance, he said that "our position has and always will be that we cannot rely on commercial networks for mission critical work. You know, every experience with that tells us that those systems will fail before our system would have failed. So we just don't see that as a realistic alternative."

For more:
- go to the subcommittee webpage on the hearing, replete with opening statements. No webcast, though.
- read Waxman's discussion draft of "The Public Safety Broadband Act of 2010" (.pdf) and a summary of the bill (.pdf)

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