WASHINGTON--A high-profile government auction earlier this year failed to attract enough private investment dollars for airwaves dedicated to a nationwide broadband network for emergency responders. On Wednesday, federal regulators began trying to resuscitate the idea.
At its monthly meeting, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to begin accepting comments from the public on a wide range of questions about what to do with that chunk of the 700Mhz spectrum, which is scheduled to be vacated by analog TV broadcasters next February as part of the congressionally mandated switch to all-digital programming. The spectrum is considered valuable both for commercial operators and emergency workers because of inherent properties that allow it to propagate over long distances and penetrate walls.
Ever since the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, politicians have lamented the lack of interoperability among various emergency communications networks as a key obstacle in responding effectively to disasters that arise.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, called Wednesday's action "the first step in a renewed effort to provide our nation's first responders with the broadband network they need and deserve."
The FCC first attempted to sell off the so-called "D" block of airwaves during a bigger auction that ultimately brought in a record $19.6 billion for the government when it concluded in March. In rules issued last summer, the regulators dictated that the license for the 10Mhz block would be set aside for creation of a nationwide public safety network, to be built through a "partnership" between the public and private sectors. Under that arrangement, public safety operators would have priority access to that spectrum in emergencies, but the winning commercial operator would also be allowed to use it on a secondary basis.
But the auction didn't come anywhere close to attracting the FCC's $1.3 billion reserve price. Frontline Wireless, the only major contender in that segment of the auction, went out of business without comment before the auction even began. Some analysts say that's because of the current economic downturn, aggravated by the FCC's failure to lay out clear enough expectations for the network and its private investors.
"Today all five of us are admitting we tried something and failed on it," Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell said at Wednesday's meeting.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Martin said the agency plans to move as quickly as possible to revise its rules and begin the new auction. He said he's not sure whether they'll be able to pull that off by the end of the year, which is what he had previously hoped, but he does hope for the licenses to be assigned before the digital television conversion.
The FCC order adopted Wednesday sets the stage for the new rules, asking for ideas about how to handle a wide range of issues, from whether the public-private partnership model is still a wise idea to what technical requirements the shared network should meet. The comment period will be open for 30 days, with another 15 days for replies to the initial wave of suggestions.
Some consumer advocacy groups and members of Congress have already expressed concerns about the fate of the public safety spectrum block and asked the FCC to investigate what caused the auction to fail.
The FCC said its goal is to provide as clear guidance as possible to potential bidders in hopes of avoiding another abysmal turnout. Martin, however, said he hadn't ruled out the idea of scrapping a public-private partnership and simply auctioning off the spectrum to the highest bidder without any requirements to build an emergency network, with Congress potentially directing those proceeds to fund a public safety network.
The two Democratic Commissioners, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, said they would've preferred to see Congress dedicate federal funds to building such a network in the first place. But they said they were willing to give the public-private partnership approach another try, so long as it produces the same result.
"The longer we delay implementation of an interoperable broadband network, the more lives we put at risk," Adelstein said.
Consumer watchdog groups and some lawmakers want to know why the block of spectrum reserved for public safety in the Federal Communications Commission's 700 MHz auction didn't hit its reserve price.
On Wednesday, a coalition of nine consumer advocacy groups, including the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union and the Media Access Project, sent a letter to the chairman of the FCC asking the agency to investigate whether the public safety requirements for "d" block license were too stringent. The groups also want the FCC to study whether plans for the shared public-private network are even still viable.
But consumer groups aren't the only ones concerned that the d block didn't sell. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and telecommunications subcommittee chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) are already planning a hearing for early next month to consider whether the public-private partnership model for building the wireless network for emergency responders should be changed or if the reserve price should be lowered.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has asked the agency's inspector general to look into complaints about the d-block auction, a Reuters story said.
The 700 MHz spectrum auction racked up a record $19.59 billion, but no one in the auction was willing to pony up the government's minimum price of $1.3 billion for the d block spectrum. The lone bid recorded for the d block was $472 million.
Under the rules set by the FCC before the auction started in January, the winner of the d-block licenses would be required to partner with local police, fire departments, and other public safety groups to provide a nationwide interoperable public safety network. This type of network is sorely missing in the U.S. And such a network was recommended to be built by the 9/11 Commission that investigated the events surrounding the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. in 2001.
A company called Cyren Call had been selected to act as the intermediary between public safety agencies and whichever private sector company won the spectrum licenses.
But even before the spectrum auction began, the only major contender in the auction, a company called Frontline Wireless, went out of business. The company had apparently been unable to secure funding.
Now, consumer groups and lawmakers are asking whether the reserve price was too high or if the strict public safety requirements were too difficult for a company in the private sector to meet.
In the meantime, the FCC has officially "de-linked" the d-block spectrum from the other blocks offered in the auction, so that it can be auctioned off later. The FCC said in a press release on Wednesday that it will not re-offer the d block spectrum immediately in the subsequent Auction 76. Instead, it will consider its options for how to license this spectrum in the future.
That said FCC Chairman Martin and the other commissioners said they were committed to making spectrum available for a nationwide interoperable public safety network before the February 2009 Digital TV transition.
"It is a travesty that our nation has failed, so far, to meet this urgent public safety challenge," Commissioner Michael Copps, said in a statement. "Now we have another chance to build the network that public safety and the American public need. I remain committed to working with my colleagues to succeed in this most important task."
There's a tremendous amount of attention focused on whether the Federal Communication Commission's September auction of new wireless spectrum in the 700 MHz band will be "open access," available to many mobile providers and applications, or be limited to whatever the auction winner wants to do with it.
There is also an important public safety issue in this debate that is not getting as much attention. That is whether some of this valuable wireless real estate should be reserved by the FCC for our first responders--the people who drive our ambulances, show up for fires, and are around to solve and prevent crimes.
Our police officers, firefighters, and public safety workers deserve an integrated communications network so they can talk to each other. Remember when police and firefighters were unable to effectively communicate in the middle of the September 11 disaster? Firefighters' radios failed, and many could not contact their brothers and sisters in the NYPD. The disaster was worse because of it.
The FCC plans to decide in the next week or two what rules will apply to the winners of the upcoming auction. CNN describes the public safety rule this way: "(It would) combine some spectrum acquired through the auction with some that will be controlled by public safety to build a broadband wireless network for use by the country's fire, police and emergency services workers."
Anything wrong with that, in the midst of all the money that the auction winner stands to make on commercial uses of these airwaves? Write, call, or mail FCC Chairman Kevin Martin with you views. As an FCC veteran, I can tell you that these communications matter and that the big corporate interests are not short on expressing their own views.
Chairman Kevin Martin
Federal Communications Commission
445 Twelfth Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20554
Phone: 202.418.1000
Fax: 202-418-2801
Reference: WT Docket Nos. 06-150, 06-169, and 96-86; PS Docket No. 06-229
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News stories:
CNET News.com: Unlock the cell phone? It's a high-stakes debate
CNN: FCC Draft Auction Rules A Win For Google, Hi-Tech Industry
KQED Radio's Forum: Net Neutrality
NEWTON, Mass.--Many people think municipal broadband is only used for free public outdoor Wi-Fi, but it may be its lesser known uses that get it paid for.
According to presenters here at MuniWireless New England, some towns are using public safety grants for law enforcement wireless networks to cover their initial costs for building a broadband infrastructure.
"Police are the biggest users of the network and they all are telling me their cruiser has become their desk. The only time they need to come to headquarters now is to book someone, deliver physical evidence or to get their computer repaired and back in service," said Charles Hewitt the chief information office for the city of Providence, R.I.
The city paid for its municipal broadband infrastructure used for the police network through grants from Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, according to Hewitt.
Once a broadband infrastructure for police and first responder networks is in place, municipalities are free to build on it for other things.
The method has two benefits, according to Chip Yager, director of operations for Motorola, which offers consulting services along with its equipment for municipalities.
"The way I see it, when municipalities say they want (Wi-Fi) for free, they want to make sure the system is paid for, or pays for itself. With a municipal broadband system you can," Yager said.
Yager said towns can pay for their initial infrastructure with grants tied to public safety and then hand off the challenges of building and figuring out a way to pay for outdoor public Wi-Fi to an experienced company.
"You can take the best radio antenna in the world, but if it's not deployed properly, it's not worth anything. That's why we're picking our partners carefully, said Yager.
"We'll deploy a system and the municipalities can then outsource network deployment for city Wi-Fi and let that company work out the challenges of how to pay for that," he said.
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