Public Safety Groups Make Case, with December Vote Expected on D-Block Auction
Lobbying at the FCC on the 700 MHz D-block is picking up, with an order on auction rules still considered likely at the FCC’s Dec. 18 meeting. Both APCO and the Public Safety Spectrum Trust were at the commission this week for meetings. Motorola said in a filing that the FCC significantly underestimated the costs of relocating some narrowband public safety operations in the 700 MHz band.
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!
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is likely to “force a vote in December,” but many at the commission remained concerned the issue isn’t “ready for prime time,” said an FCC official. A second agency official said that “the wild card is how active are the jurisdictions interested in the regional approach going to be because so far they haven’t been particularly active.”
“There’s an effort by the chairman’s office to try to get an item on the eighth floor,” said an industry official. “With this commission you never know. The toughest part is do they allow for regional licenses or not … and the second thing is what requirements they'll impose on the D-block winner.” The FCC has to balance the interests of potential bidders with the needs of public safety, the official said.
On Monday, Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust, met with Chief Derek Poarch and other top officials at the FCC’s Public Safety Bureau. McEwen told us Wednesday the discussions focused on three issues. He said he explained why the PSST wants the FCC to cap the group’s annual reimbursement level at $10 million rather than $5 million, as the commission has proposed. McEwen said the amount of expenses the group will have are difficult to calculate until after an auction and the negotiation of an agreement with the D-block licensee or licensees. McEwen also discussed the PSST’s need for a one-time payment to cover the amount the trust owes in legal fees and other expenses. “We discussed with them in a little more detail what our debts are and what our projected debts will be at the end of an auction if an auction is held in the June, July timeframe,” he said.
But McEwen said much of the discussion focused on the cost of relocating 47 public safety agencies already operating narrowband radio systems in spectrum set aside for that use under the original FCC bandplan. They have to move after the FCC changed the plan to clear the way for a national broadband network in the D-block. The PSST estimates that their relocation costs, to be paid by the D- block licensee, are more than $73 million. The FCC proposed that they get only a total of $27 million. “These agencies did what was legal at the time the FCC changed the rules,” McEwen said. “It wasn’t their fault that the rules got changed.”
Meanwhile, Motorola reported on a meeting with Angela Giancarlo, chief of staff to Commissioner Robert McDowell, in which the equipment maker also discussed why the costs of narrowband relocation will be higher than projected by the FCC. Steve Sharkey, Motorola senior director of regulatory & spectrum policy, said his message was the FCC should base projected costs on “not to exceed” relocation estimates directly from the agencies which have to move. “We're concerned that, if the FCC establishes a cap on relocation funds based on incomplete information, they run the risk of insufficient funds being available,” Sharkey said Wednesday. “This could leave some licensees unable to move narrowband equipment out of the broadband spectrum, resulting in delays and uncertainty in the ability of the D-block licensee to deploy the broadband network in those areas.”
APCO said in a filing that President Chris Fischer and immediate past President Willis Carter met Monday with Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, Giancarlo, Poarch and others at the FCC to discuss the commission’s latest D-block proposal.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police, meanwhile, lined up against a move by New York City and other major cities asking the FCC to allocate 700 MHz D-block spectrum directly to public safety rather than holding an auction as planned.
“At the annual conference of the IACP just completed in San Diego, the IACP Executive Committee discussed the recent efforts by a few large cities to delay the current FCC proceedings to develop revised rules for a proposed re- auction of the 700 MHz D Block,” the group said in a Tuesday letter to the FCC. “Following that discussion there was a unanimous vote to reaffirm the strong IACP support for the FCC to not entertain any delay in this effort.”