Sheriffs Groups Double Down on Arguments to Stay 4.9 GHz Order
The National Sheriffs' Association and the California State Sheriffs' Association made their case for staying parts of the FCC’s October order on the 4.9 GHz band. The groups supported arguments by the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (see 2503070024), which also sought a stay, and countered arguments by the FCC, the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) and Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (see 2503030053).
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Opponents of a stay “failed to show that the public -- including tens of thousands of public safety agencies -- had adequate notice of the FCC’s abrupt decision to effectively take state and local public safety spectrum away from its intended users” as part of the October order, the sheriffs groups said in a brief filed Friday in docket 24-1363. That change in the FCC’s approach was also “based on a last minute ex parte proposal” by the PSSA “submitted after the final rulemaking proposal and pleading cycle in the proceeding.”
The order was “arbitrary and capricious” because until it was approved public safety agencies had no warning that the FCC would alter its approach to the 4.9 GHz spectrum, the brief said. “Both Oppositions argue that the FCC’s failure to give advance notice of the drastic rule changes it ultimately adopted is somehow cured by the fact that a few commenters were able to submit ex parte letters at the last minute responding to PSSA’s eleventh-hour proposal to hand the 4.9 GHz band to FirstNet,” the sheriffs groups said. They said members will suffer “significant harm” as a result of the order.
“First responders have been stripped of needed licensing rights … and the Opponents have not refuted that it may be years before FirstNet, the beneficiary of the FCC’s eleventh hour switch, will have the funding and plan to put this spectrum to use nationwide,” the brief said: “The Opponents also did not refute that the FCC failed to consider less harmful alternatives; and that the FCC’s decision to give AT&T a spectrum windfall improperly creates an unfair competitive advantage, and undercuts Congressional national security efforts.”