APCO Calls FCC Broadband Network Proposal ‘Deeply Flawed’
With an FCC decision likely as early as April, parties from across the wireless world entreated the Commission one last time on proposals for creating a national broadband network for public safety. The comments lead inevitably to the conclusion that an FCC proposal for public safety in a late 2006 rulemaking is “deeply flawed,” the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
“There was a clear pattern” to comments by most safety entities, APCO said, noting that most “were deeply skeptical of, or opposed to, the Commission’s proposal.” The FCC plan’s only fans are “academics with no public safety experiences and a few commercial entities that would enjoy direct or indirect economic benefits,” APCO said.
APCO took aim at CTIA claims that its members serve far more subscribers than does public safety with comparable spectrum. “CTIA is comparing apples to oranges,” APCO said: “Commercial wireless providers have large contiguous blocks of nationwide spectrum, and are free to focus their operations in well-populated areas, offering networks with substantial coverage gaps and the risk of dropped or blocked calls.”
Cyren Call restated demands for 30 MHz of spectrum to set up a workable safety network. “The FCC is well aware that most public safety spectrum is both interleaved with non-public safety uses and assigned in increasingly narrowband frequencies,” Cyren Call said: “It is the antithesis of the large blocks of contiguous spectrum to which commercial wireless providers have access and which is essential for cost-effective broadband deployment.” Frontline said its proposal “addresses… critical communications needs and provides market-based solutions for them -- solutions that will not delay the auction, that are consistent with existing authority, and that avoid burdensome regulatory regimes.”
CTIA said the record shows a 12 MHz allocation to be “sufficient to support an interoperable broadband public safety network,” describing arguments for a 30 MHz allocation flawed. “Despite… real-world evidence, Cyren Call and supporters assert that a 30 MHz allocation is necessary,” CTIA said: “In support, Cyren Call submits a technical showing that does not explain its calculations, cannot be reproduced, and should not be relied on.”
“There is a striking degree of consensus that the Commission should follow through on the model boldly proposed in the Ninth NPRM,” Cisco said: “The Commission should move swiftly to designate the proposed 12 MHz to a single national licensee that would deploy a broadband network.” The record also bears out that this network should be based on broadband, not wideband, standards, Cisco said: “Cisco is not aware of any other country in the world that is contemplating national deployment of a… wideband system. Nor is Cisco aware of any similar commercial deployments. If wideband offered such benefits, why is no one else taking advantage of them?”
Satellites need to be an integral part of any emergency communications plan developed by the FCC using spectrum made available from the DTV transition, the Satellite Industry Assn. said in comments filed at the FCC. Emergency communications networks “must include some form of satellite communication capability in order to be fully resilient and redundant,” SIA said.