DoD Use of Public Safety Spectrum Under Review at FCC
Public safety groups are likely to oppose an FCC proposal that would give DoD and other federal agencies access to 12 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum that the FCC is examining for a public safety broadband network, we're told.
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The proposal was contained in a 16 page rulemaking released in the days after the Commission approved the NPRM (CD Dec 21 p7). The FCC is using the notice in part to seek further comment on broader questions raised by Cyren Call’s proposal for a 30 MHz broadband set-aside, sources said. What the FCC did, in effect, was mix parts of the Cyren Call proposal with the more modest 12 MHz proposal.
Harlin McEwen, who represents public safety groups on spectrum matters, said he believes state and local public safety officials support federal agencies getting access to the 30 MHz block proposed for public safety broadband by Cyren Call. But he said 12 MHz wouldn’t allow the same kind of sharing.
“There isn’t enough spectrum there to serve the needs of state and local public safety agencies and also allow for access by federal agencies,” McEwen told us. “I think there is general agreement of how it could work in the 30 MHz proposed. In the current spectrum allocation we have never believed that there was enough spectrum to allow that… The concept of allowing participation in that spectrum has long been resisted by the state and local public safety community.”
“This is something we're still looking at,” said another public safety source. “We really haven’t had a chance to go over the NPRM.” Sources said the number of federal users of the broadband would likely be much smaller than the estimated 700,000-1 million state and local first responders who may use the network. The FBI, for example, has 12,000 agents. Though DoD and other federal agencies don’t use 700 MHz spectrum, the source said, everyone would have to buy new devices to use the band for wireless broadband.
The FCC said in the rulemaking it was seeking comment on “whether federal law enforcement and other federal users such as the Department of Defense should be permitted to use the national broadband public safety broadband communications system and, if so, on what basis.” The rulemaking said federal users “may find subscribing to a nationwide, broadband public safety system to be a cost-effective alternative or complement to the construction of separate systems” and joint use “could facilitate interoperability and coordination.”
Last week’s rulemaking was based in part, sources said, on a proposal that Verizon Wireless has floated in many meetings with public safety groups on a 12 MHz network it would run. That proposal has never been made public, though it seemed to be a key focus of the NPRM.
The NPRM said the “central theme” of the Commission’s likely approach would be choosing one nationwide licensee selected based on “experience with public safety frequency coordination, not-for-profit status, and ability to directly represent all public safety interests.”
The FCC also offered some possibilities for how the network would be financed, including fees for use by public safety, and “unconditionally preemptible” leasing of the spectrum to commercial users. Sharing the spectrum with commercial users “coupled with the potential cost savings of shared use of CMRS infrastructure, could allow a more rapid and extensive buildout of a broadband public safety system than could be achieved under traditional licensing and funding mechanisms,” the FCC said.