PSST Official at FCC to Explain Shift on Regional Licenses
The Public Safety Spectrum Trust, while still favoring a national 700 MHz public safety license, has agreed to explore whether the FCC instead should allow regional licenses in hopes of attracting multiple carriers to build what still would be a national network. Harlin McEwen, chairman of the PSST, was at the FCC Tuesday, at the PSST board’s direction, to explain the evolving PSST stance to key agency staff, he told us.
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The FCC likely would have to seek comment to determine the best sizes for regional licenses if it agrees to that approach, a PSST member said Tuesday. Sources said U.S. Cellular and other smaller carriers have met with the PSST to express interest in regional licenses.
The PSST board agreed unanimously at a meeting last week to examine regional licenses for the 700 MHz D-block, McEwen said in an interview. “We did explain to the board that it’s difficult to find people who have expressed an interest in bidding on a single license,” he said. “There may be some, but at the moment it’s a concern that we have. There are a number of people who have been meeting with us and talking to us about a regional approach, so we've got a lot of interest in that.”
The task of managing regional licensees still worries the PSST, McEwen said. “We don’t want to be dealing with dozens and dozens of licenses,” he said. “The PSST board has continued to express their strong desire for a single license, but they've also authorized me to pursue this [regional] approach.”
A regional approach likely would not address concerns of New York City and other players seeking control of the spectrum, McEwen said. He planned to go to New York Wednesday to discuss objections there to a national or regional license, he said. At a July 30 FCC en banc meeting on the D-block’s future, top New York Police and Fire Department officials said they would hesitate to use a national wireless broadband network run by a public-private partnership (CD July 31 p1).
Even if the FCC adopts regional licenses the network must be based on a single technology deployed everywhere, one PSST member said. “All the economies of scale and everything else that would be obtained with a national license can be obtained … if there is a standard technology across all regions,” the source said. The FCC would have to seek guidance from carriers before adopting regional licenses, the source added. “This is something that’s going to have to be put out and vetted to see where the commercial interests are,” the source said. “If you have six or 12 -- pick a number -- regional licenses, how would the commercial world react to those kinds of regions?”
The PSST Board agreed to reduce the organization’s financial relationship with adviser Cyren Call, McEwen said. The PSST has spent about $5.1 of $6 million it borrowed from Cyren, McEwen said. “We can’t afford to pay them without additional money,” he said. “We have to scale back our commitment. We had an agreement but it needed to be adjusted under the circumstances … . We still have an ongoing relationship with them and we're working with them. This was something that was also good to get resolved.”