N.Y. Says Major Cities Agree New D-Block Auction Doomed to Fail

The Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response held a hearing as the FCC completes work on proposed rules for a D-block auction. They're scheduled for a vote at the Sept. 25 meeting. Dowd brought up a question that has come up among commissioners and their top aides: How much the New York proposal reflects views in other big cities. Derek Poarch, chief of the FCC’s Public Safety Bureau, represented the commission and sometimes got tough questions from subcommittee members.

Dowd said public safety officials from major cities across the nation held a conference call Monday. The consensus was that data and crucial voice communications must be on the same network, which would be built locally “from the bottom up,” with full “buy in” from public safety. “We should be looking to broadband technology for a full solution,” Dowd said. “The national model, in our view, will not work. And when I say in our view I'm not talking about New York City or the NYPD. I'm talking about every major city that we've had a conversation with.”

Dowd said the city didn’t want to have to work with whatever carrier buys the D-block in the New York region. He said the city is already investing $500 million on its network. “The comment was made in New York City whoever wins [the license] there could then negotiate with the city and make them happy,” he said. “We're already happy. We're building our own system. How about giving us our spectrum and letting us decide if we want to partner with someone?”

Robert LeGrand, former chief technology officer for the District of Columbia, said that if the FCC goes ahead with a new auction of the D block, it will “disenfranchise” first responders in many major cities which are already building networks and could potentially divide communications among several carriers. The District of Columbia’s government was the first to make use of the band, under an experimental license. District officials met during the summer with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to warn that without “relief from the regulatory uncertainty that has caused further deployment … to stall” the city may have to shut down operations (CD Aug 7 p1).

LeGrand told the committee adoption of auction rules by the FCC would be premature since there’s little agreement. At the July “FCC en banc hearing we had more questions than we had answers,” he said. He also said a one-size-fits-all solution won’t work in many communities. “We put all our eggs in one basket and as a result of the failed auction we are in a worse place than we were 13 months ago,” LeGrand said. “The need and the drive towards broadband communications for first responders has not stopped and, as a result, states and local jurisdictions are either deploying non-700 MHz networks or leveraging commercial networks. In other words, the eggs are leaving the basket.”

Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., a member of the subcommittee, asked Poarch if the FCC had seriously considered a proposal from some cities that they get direct access to the D block. She reacted strongly to comments that the network will take 15 years to complete. She also questioned why a second D-block auction would succeed where the first failed. “Why don’t you try giving New York City the contract directly?” Lowey asked. “I bet that New Yorkers would not be willing to wait 15 years,” she said. “It’s hard for me to believe that a city that’s number one on threats is going to wait 15 years for whomever you give the contract to to get their act together.”

Poarch said he had been to New York City to see its network and has a meeting planned with city officials later this week. He said the FCC has taken the city’s concerns seriously. “I think anyone who thinks it will take 15 years to build out New York City would probably be wrong,” he said. “New York City would be one of the first areas, as would be the national capital region. Those types of areas would be built out quicker because the infrastructure is in place.” Poarch said the FCC isn’t certain it could give the D block to the cities to use. “We're required to have a bidding process,” he said. “There’s certainly some belief that would require an act by Congress.”

“Have you recommended that?” Lowey asked. “Have you thought about it? Think it’s a good idea?”

“I don’t know that’s a good idea,” Poarch replied. “What you would find is if you just gave the spectrum to cities is that New York and the Chicagos and the national capital regions would build a system.” Smaller areas would be left out. Lowey replied, “This doesn’t make sense to me… The threat is in the big communities.”

John Contestabile, board member of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust, said New York City’s work has been notable. “Unfortunately, the access to broadband funding that New York City has achieved is lacking for almost all of the other jurisdictions across the country,” he said.

Interoperability of the new 700 MHz broadband network and legacy first responder networks also emerged as a major issue in questioning from members of the committee. “We're putting a lot of money into this effort,” said full committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. “The committee is committed to supporting the effort but we want it to be an effort that is not on parallel tracks.” He expressed concern that statewide communications plans “are going in a different direction.”

Poarch said the commission’s intent is that legacy systems will be able to use the D-block spectrum for interoperable communications and be gradually be integrated into the new network.

Thompson also asked Poarch whether all areas, including rural parts of his district, will have access to the new national communications system. “There’s nothing in our proposal that precludes any area from having the coverage,” Poarch replied. “We want to do this on a nationwide basis so that everyone has an equal opportunity at interoperability. We don’t think that larger areas deserve to be interoperable more than smaller areas… You can’t predict when there’s going to be a bridge collapse, when there’s going to be a flood, when there’s going to be a hurricane. Those are not unique only to large areas.”

Poarch also faced tough questions from Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash., a senior member of the committee. Dicks noted that the lone bid for the D block in the first 700 MHz auction, from Qualcomm, was far short of the FCC’s $1.33 billion reserve price. “How could the FCC have so badly miscalculated what the market would do here?” he asked.

Poarch responded that the FCC hadn’t miscalculated and the requirements that came with the spectrum make building the network “a tremendous undertaking.” He reassured the committee that the FCC was exploring “all options” to ensure success and had set a new $750 million minimum bid for the auction and may allow for regional licenses instead of a single national license. The FCC also better spells out the relationship that would be expected between the carrier and public safety, he said. “Everyone said to us last time part of the reason there wasn’t a successful auction was the lack of clarity concerning the roles of the public safety community, or the PSST and the commercial providers,” he said. “In what the chairman has put forward for this auction there’s appreciable clarity.”

APCO Ties to PSST

Touching on one persistent concern, Richard Mirgon, president-elect of APCO, told the committee his group remains supportive of the public-safety trust and was pleased Martin had proposed changes that would make the trust more effective. Deep divisions between APCO and the trust became clear during this year’s annual APCO meeting in Kansas City, Mo. (CD Aug 11 p1).

“Recent trade press [coverage] has misstated APCO’s policies by stating that APCO is looking to sever ties with the PSST,” Mirgon said. “I want to make it very clear that in no way is APCO looking to sever ties with the PSST. We're working to make it stronger. Our commitment to building a national broadband network stands strong.” Offering an olive branch, Mirgon praised trust Chairman Harlin McEwen for work on building a national network.