Public safety supporters of a House bill that would give first responders license to the D block swath of spectrum say they'll take their case to the Hill this week.

At issue is a 10 megahertz chunk of the 700 MHz band--the D block--which the Federal Communications Commission is currently bound by law to auction to the private sector. Groups like the Public Safety Alliance--which is managed by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials and whose members mainly are police and fire chief associations--say that without the D block, plans for a national interoperable broadband public safety network won't be realized. The FCC has said public safety's existing 10 MHz license is sufficient.  

The Public Safety Alliance says members will travel to the capitol this week to drum up support for bill sponsored by House Homeland Security Committee senior Republican Peter King (N.Y.) that would allocated the D block license to public safety.

Not all public safety groups support King's legislation; the National Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Firemen both support the current FCC plan to auction the D block with the condition that public safety users gain priority access to it when their spectrum allocation is over-burdened.

The Public Safety Alliance also faces the opposition of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who continues to encourage support for draft legislation that would fund creation of a national public safety broadband network with proceeds of the D block auction. In an opinion piece published July 12 in Roll Call, Waxman asserted that a public safety argument that funds for the national broadband network could be raised through public safety itself licensing the D block would not work.  

"In large cities such as New York or Los Angeles, the D Block could command high values, so public safety officials there could lease portions of the D Block to finance network construction. That is not an approach that will work for rural areas where there will be only limited demand for additional spectrum capacity," he wrote.

For more:
- read the text of King's legislation, the Broadband for First Responders Act of 2010 (H.R. 5081)
- go to the Public Safety Alliance's webpage
- download statements from the International Association of Firemen (.pdf) and National Fraternal Order of Police (.pdf) on the D block
- read Waxman's Roll Call opinion piece

Related Articles:
First responder group disputes FCC D block analysis
FCC: D block auction will make first responder network affordable
FCC: 10 MHz is enough for public safety broadband network
Q&A: APCO on the D block