WIRELESS GROUPS DIFFER ON PUBLIC SAFETY DEFINITION FOR 4.9 GHZ

Reflecting scenarios outlined by other commenters, Motorola said spectrum could be used for public safety applications that included wireless LANs, including wireless vehicular area networks that could be set up around vehicle of emergency responder such as police car. Other applications for which spectrum is suited include “rapidly deployable mobile command systems at incident scenes” and outdoor wireless LAN hot spots for mobile offices within public safety vehicles. Motorola recommended FCC adopt channeling plan built on 5 MHz blocks that could be aggregated into larger channels as needed, up to 20 MHz. “We believe that public safety can leverage the semiconductor technology and applications being developed in the nearby 5 GHz U-NII consumer broadband, in standards such as IEEE 802.11a,” Motorola said. “However, meeting public safety’s specialized mission critical requirements will require some modifications to the technology and applications.”

Commission sought comment on whether it should use broader description of “public safety radio services” in Balanced Budget Act of 1997. That definition, covered in Sec. 309(j) of Communications Act, set out definition of public safety radio that covered certain private wireless services. Sec. 337(f) of Act had outlined narrower, traditional definition of public safety services that didn’t include critical infrastructure providers that could support public safety operators in emergencies. UTC stressed importance of interoperability among public safety community and critical infrastructure providers that furnished communications during emergency responses. Group cited congestion and interference in industrial business and industrial/land transportation bands that could impinge on critical infrastructure (CI) communications. “Although this frequency band is not appropriate for backbone, longer distance two-way voice and data communications, eligibility in the 4.9 GHz would represent an important first step toward alleviating the threat to CI communications,” UTC said.

Broader definition of public safety also would aid in interoperability between CI operators and public safety in emergency responses, UTC said: “Utilities and other CI entities are first responders with traditional public safety agencies, and the 4.9 GHz could be used for such ‘hot spot’ communications.” If Commission made all “likely emergency responders” eligible for licensing at 4.9 GHz, it would encourage joint development of systems, UTC said. It said both public safety and CI operators “should share this spectrum equally without restricting either group to fixed or mobile use.” UTC urged FCC to not conduct auctions if it allowed commercial use in band in support of public safety, saying that would delay entry from licensees and manufacturers who built gear for that band.

APCO took different view of legislative changes in 1997, saying Sec. 309(j) provided that competitive bidding authority didn’t apply to licenses or construction permits issued by FCC for public safety radio services. Those were said to include private internal radio services used by state and local govts. and nongovt. entities. “In this section, the congressional intent was merely to define a group of entities that would be exempt from auctions, rather than provide an all-inclusive definition of those entities that are considered traditional ‘public safety services,'” APCO said. It cautioned that giving eligibility in band to nontraditional public safety operators could create interference problems. “Public safety entities will use the 4.9 GHz band both at temporary incident locations as well as for permanent coverage area,” group said. “Use of the band by nonpublic safety entities such as utilities on a wide-area basis would conflict with the temporary uses of public safety entities.”

APCO said public safety didn’t have “luxury” of undertaking coordination process in event of emergency that required immediate use of band. Public safety group acknowledged there were scenarios in which critical infrastructure providers such as utilities needed interoperability with public safety responders. In such cases, utilities taking part in joint emergency operations with public safety entities such as police or fire departments. should be able to share resources on scene of disaster. “The eligible entity would be the public safety entity and the utility can enter into a memorandum of understanding with the eligible entity to share the facilities.”

City of N.Y. also backed narrower definition of public safety for eligible users at 4.9 GHz, but said FCC should assess way for providing public safety licensing bodies with ability to delegate access to critical infrastructure providers and commercial licensees that supported public safety entities. But city didn’t advocate commercial use of band, citing “current security climate.” It said: “The city is primarily concerned that permitting commercial use on the band could result in significant interference deriving from interleaving or noncontiguous channelization plans, as has occurred in the 800 MHz spectrum.” In part, city also advocated that “at minimum” fixed operations should be allowed on secondary basis at 4.9 GHz. Filing also called for FCC to consider creating task force to develop broadband data interoperability for mobile equipment, examining 80.211 standards as model.

In other areas, Motorola recommended that: (1) State and local public safety agencies have ability to authorize additional use by federal agencies, public service and critical infrastructure entities to participate in disaster response. (2) Each state and local public safety agency be eligible to use entire band “given the localized onsite operation and variety of applications foreseen.” That would mean agencies in local area could coordinate among themselves to avoid interference, but on “real-time” basis rather than prelicensing frequency coordination traditionally used for land mobile operations, Motorola said. (3) Secondary unlicensed commercial use of band not be allowed because it would be inconsistent with goal of guaranteeing interference- free use of band for public safety users. (4) “Stringent” out-of-band emissions mask be adopted to protect adjacent band operations and power limits appropriate for public safety coverage and reliability requirements. (5) Radio astronomy sites be protected through coordination zones within 50 miles of radio astronomy sites so public safety agencies could maximize use of broadband systems in most populated areas without affecting radio astronomy operations. “We also urge the Commission to help determine the best way to coordinate public safety broadband operations with U.S. Navy use of CEC systems below 4940 MHz to minimize the potential for interference to public safety and maximize use of the band by public safety,” Motorola said.

National Public Safety Telecommunications Council recommended that only eligible users of band be public safety agencies but that they could authorize additional use by other organizations in case of major incident. As examples of additional users, council cited American Red Cross, utilities, federal agencies. “Such use would be through a memorandum of understanding and under the authority of a state or local agency’s license and structured in a manner similar to that provided for federal government users of the 700 MHz band,” group said. Filing said one technology being examined closely for that band was wireless LAN system based on 802.11a standard. Other standards such as those used for MMDS could provide significant throughput in 6 MHz channel, council said. Rather than 10 channels of 5 MHz in several proposals, council offered “additional alternative” of seven 1 MHz channels at either end of band, with remaining 36 MHz split into six 6 MHz channels. “This allows broadband technologies such as MMDS to be used for a WLAN across a community or alternatively supports one or two IEEE 802.11a channels by aggregating three 6 MHz and two 1 MHz channels,” council said.

UTC Vp-Gen. Counsel Jill Lyon said that in Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997, Congress indicated its intent that definition of public safety radio services be enlarged to include critical infrastructure providers. UTC position since then has been that when Commission allocates new spectrum for public safety it should include critical infrastructure, she said. That 4.9 GHz proceeding marked first time since then that FCC had made new public safety spectrum allocation, because spectrum set aside for those operators at 700 MHz already had been decided when BBA was passed, she told us. Further notice sought comment on whether eligibility standards for 4.9 GHz should be limited to state and local emergency workers and nongovt. public safety providers that worked with govt. agencies. Commission said there was no statutory language that required it to limit users in that spectrum to such operators.