NPSTC Preparing Report on Public Safety Communications Post-T-Band
The National Public Safety Telecom Council began a working group to explore questions raised by public safety’s pending loss of the T-band, which was part of the February spectrum law. Public safety got the 700 MHz D-block in the legislation, but had to give up the T-band, heavily used in 11 major metropolitan areas. NPSTC sent out a questionnaire (http://xrl.us/bnkk2a) to gather information as the group prepares a report, targeted for release near the end of the year. Among the major cities where public safety uses the band are Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, New York, Houston and Washington, D.C. The legislation required public safety users to clear the band within nine years so it can be resold in an FCC auction.
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!
"The report will identify how these T-Band channels are currently in use and determine if possible options may be available to the public safety community to maintain critical communications and comply with the law,” NPSTC said in a news release. “Based on the fact gathering, a series of recommendations will be prepared which will be shared with Congress and the FCC. It is very important to determine the impact to public safety users and to prepare a unified report to explain the true scope of the law’s effects."
The working group has held several conference calls starting in June, with 40-45 participants, Stu Overby of Motorola Solutions, co-chair of the T-Band Working Group, told us. “Our goal has always been to kind of develop a factual picture of the impact of the legislation,” he said. “If you move to 700 or 800 MHz, you might need additional sites than what you have in the T-band. Could you move to USF? Could you move to VHF? Could you do voice over broadband? Those are the kinds of things that come to mind.” The answer could be different in the different markets, he said. “What you get in Los Angeles might be different than Dallas, for example."
T-band concerns emerged at the group’s last meeting, in Alexandria, Va., in June (CD June 6 p1) and are expected to be a topic at the group’s next meeting in Salt Lake City in September, Overby said. T-band licensees are deeply concerned and many questions remain, he said. “Where would you go to?” he said. “What is the cost of moving? We've seen from the 800 MHz rebanding the time it takes to move a system from even one part of the same band to another part.”