Sen. Jay Rockefeller

“You have the ability to give rural and urban America the capability to allow public safety to do a better job,” said Jackson County (W.Va.) EMS Director Stephen E. McClure to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee during a hearing on Senate Bill 3756. “[The bill] will allow an unprecedented move to develop a public safety communications network. We will be able to do things we are not able to do in today’s system.”

The bill, if passed, will allocate 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band (known as the D Block) to public safety and provide funding to build a nationwide public safety broadband system. The alternative, the National Broadband Plan (NBP) released by the FCC this summer, would require public safety to build the network on only 10 MHz of spectrum and auction the D Block for commercial use, but still provide public safety with priority access to that spectrum.

The hearing on Sept. 23 brought together members of the public safety community, local government, the FCC and the telecommunications industry. Representing public safety’s position in support of the legislation was McClure, San Jose (Calif.) Police Chief Robert Davis and Western Fire Chiefs Association Chief Executive Jeffrey D. Johnson and Houston, Texas, Mayor Annise Parker.

“Almost a decade has passed since 9/11,” said Davis, “and our country needs a wireless interoperable network controlled by public safety. Mr. Chairman, your bill provides us with exactly what we need to make this a reality. This spectrum is uniquely and diversely suited for public safety use.”

Davis discussed why the D Block was important to public safety. He said that signals in the 700 MHz band can penetrate walls and windows better than higher-band frequencies, as well as the spectrum’s adjacency to the existing public safety broadband allocation. “Any alternative spectrum would be less desirable, since additional components would be required which would dramatically increase costs while reducing performance,” he said.

When Johnson spoke, he addressed a new vision of allocating spectrum. “Over the past 50 years, the FCC has allotted thin slices of spectrum to public safety as the need arose,” he said. “Currently, 55,000 networks work over six or more different bands. Our goal of interoperability is difficult; it is expensive. This is no criticism of the FCC; this is just the way business has been done. After numerous major events and other significant disasters, it is clear that a new model is necessary, a national architecture for public safety wireless communications.”

Johnson continued, “To achieve a nationwide public safety broadband network — connectivity coast to coast, border to border — 10 MHz of D Block spectrum, currently slated for FCC auction, must be added to the current 10 MHz of spectrum licensed to the Public Safety Broadband Licensee in order to build out a 20 MHz network. … Only with this particular spectrum configuration, and none other, can public safety be assured that it will have the ability to build the network it needs now and into the future. S.3756 will accomplish this one-time opportunity to get it right. Only with this particular spectrum configuration and no other can public safety be assured that it will have the spectrum. Public safety must control the spectrum. We cannot have commercial providers deciding what is and what is not an emergency.”

Johnson also described a vision for the network, defining mission critical as a hardened infrastructure that could survive a disaster, with redundancy and the ability to broadcast “one-to-one and one-to-many.”

National Broadband Plan & LTE
Dr. Ken Zdunek, vice president and chief technology officer for Roberson & Associates, spoke in favor of the NBP. “My testimony is based on a study our company performed for T-Mobile USA, analyzing the potential use of a shared 700 MHz D Block commercial and public safety system as a supplement to a dedicated 10 MHz public safety system recommended in the National Broadband Plan,” said Zdunek. “Our study concludes that licensing the 700 D Block spectrum for commercial use is the best way to achieve the goal of having a nationwide interoperable broadband public safety network.”

Zdunek also emphasized the idea that commercial networks have more base stations than public safety networks. According to Zdunek, the structure proposed in the NBP would give public safety access to more infrastructure and capacity.

Ret. Admiral James Barnett Jr., chief of the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, addressed how the FCC has worked toward interoperability, including forming the Emergency Response Interoperability Center and working to ensure a national public safety the network is deployed. “The foundation of the network must be facts and data,” he said. The three elements that, in my view, are essential are: 1) the network must be truly interoperable; 2) it must be nationwide, because if it is not, then it is not truly interoperable; and 3) the network must be feasible, not only from an engineering standpoint, but also from an economic standpoint.”

Barnett also addressed the FCC’s position that public safety only needs 10 MHz of spectrum for this network. “We have determined that this spectrum, with the latest engineering and cellular architecture, will perform as 160 MHz would if you used the out-dated technology public safety is currently using,” he said.

Priority Access
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable relying on commercial,” said McClure. “I have to rely on two [carriers] now, and I still don’t have coverage. In my opinion, we would take care of ourselves better. Public safety needs to control this and police themselves.”

In addition to public safety’s past experiences with commercial grade networks, advancements in technology, such as biometrics and automatic license plate readers, would require public safety to continuously negotiate with a commercial D Block licensee to use new applications over that system.

Johnson said, “Public safety has access to commercial networks now. We can buy a wireless card. The issue is a criticality issue and control of the network, so that when we need it, we can reach out and adjust it. [Priority access is] a false model. The bill allows an adequate spectrum platform to address our current and future needs.”

There was consensus among the panel members about the importance of public safety to work with commercial carriers, leveraging that relationship for roaming access to commercial networks during emergencies. The difference in opinion was based on how that access is accomplished.

Johnson said, “There is strength to having a roaming agreement. The added value of roaming is envisioned in the future of a public safety broadband network. We agree that 10 MHz as the core is important. Where we disagree is that if 10 MHz is enough. Public safety says that it’s not, and the National Broadband Plan says that it is.”

Barnett said, “On the ability to roam over onto commercial networks, there’s no disagreement. … We have talked to the commercial carriers. The [LTE] system is set up to do [priority access] with 15 levels of priority and imposing upon them a responsibility to allow public safety to negotiate priority access that would be for compensation.”

Funding
The greatest challenge to this network, according to the FCC, is its affordability. As a result, Barnett emphasized the need to act quickly to begin building the network.

“With regard to delay, we [FCC] are concerned about the cost,” Barnett said. “If we delay for any reason, commercial 4G networks will continue to build out. If the public safety system can be built at the same time, it will reduce the overall cost. ”

According to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, committee chairman, the bill answers the funding questions by identifying spectrum for auction. A construction fund and a maintenance and operation fund would be created and authorize a maximum of $11 billion. The bill funds the networks’ construction by auctioning 25 MHz of contiguous spectrum at frequencies between 1675 MHz and 1710 MHz.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas) raised concern that a 20 MHz nationwide approach would create a greater financial strain on local government.

Parker said it would not and added, “We are already paying for it now. Our concern is that local communities are bearing all the costs now. We have to do it; we don’t have a choice. We support the bill, but the bill envisions working with the states, and we need funding help at the local levels.”

According to Sen. Tom Udall (D- N.M.), it is estimated that a 20 MHz public safety network will cost approximately $16 billion and that the U.S. would save $9 billion with a shared network. He asked the public safety representatives point blank why the more expensive approach was justified.

Johnson replied, “Investment in these systems is going on today at the local level. Adequate spectrum will bring focused investment in one area we are all moving to. It is the issue of roaming and whether public safety has adequate spectrum. During a disaster, business, city, county, all aspects of government have business continuity issues that we are going to be using this network for. We are still going to run out of spectrum in public safety with technology. Even if we had preemptive authority we are still going to need network control and when you start talking network control, commercial networks start getting nervous.”

The issue of priority access also played into the issue of funding. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) pointed out, “What I just heard you say is that as long as there is just compensation. I will tell you, as a former mayor, that those bills get big.”

Sen. Rockefeller said, “[Funding] is answered in the bill. It will pay for itself. Revenue from incentive auctions, revenues from the auctions of specific spectrum bands, spectrum that has been identified from NOAA to repurposing. It pays for everything we have been talking about this morning.”

Aftermath
Sen. Rockefeller closed the hearing with a statement rather than a final question for the panel.

“We are going to be levering commercial,” said Rockefeller. “We are, but please don’t try to convince someone from West Virginia that commercial wireless broadband operators have any interest in rural West Virginia, because they don’t. There’s no money there. … Telecommunications companies are not kind to rural areas because it is not in the interest of their share holders to be kind. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is. …

“It comes down to a choice of priorities,” he continued. “We have an Agent Orange question of the incapacity of [public safety officials] to accept much lower salaries and put [their] lives at risk to help others. It is such an easy choice. We can pay for [the network]. Yes, we cooperate with the commercial side, but don’t depend on them because they won’t go out to rural areas, but [public safety] needs to. … We are crazy if we don’t do it. [Consider] the shear national embarrassment if we come up to 9/11/2011, and we don’t have a bill passed with this being developed.”

Public Safety Alliance
An hour after the hearing concluded, members of the Public Safety Alliance (PSA) gathered to address the media. In addition to the hearing, this week, PSA member organizations of the PSA participated in the administration’s Public Safety Communications Forum and conducted meetings with key senators in support of the legislation.

During the press conference, Davis said, “From the support expressed today by the leadership of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, we clearly made an impact on the positions of policy makers and gained momentum for public safety’s position. In addition, the administration has been fully engaged with public safety and has a clear understanding of our effort and what we are trying to accomplish.”

Click here to view the full press conference.

About the Author
Natasha Yetman is the PSC associate editor. Contact her at [email protected]. Special thanks to the EAC, particularly Chuck Taylor, Debbie Smith and Debby Peterson, as well as Bill Carrow, Sherry Decker, Gail Larsen, Harriet Miller-Brown, Charlene Fisk, Alan Gray and Sue Crimmins, for their assistance.