The latest tide has turned in the tumultuous sea of emergency communications. This time it looks like lawmakers might catch a wave in favor of expanding emergency responder bandwidth into the "D Block."
As we reported in the June 17 DR, public safety officials and the Federal Communications Commission have long scuffled over a key piece of the wireless broadband spectrum referred to as the D Block. An FCC plan would auction the spectrum to private communication companies looking for bandwidth to support the next generation of mobile technology.
Public safety officials, however, want to expand into the D Block—right next door to their existing spectrum space—and create a network dedicated to public safety use.
Until late last month, the FCC had Obama administration support for its plan, but no longer, according to a New York Times article. After months of being lobbied by public-safety interest groups, the president is ready to get behind their expansion idea, the article stated.
“We’re absolutely thrilled that the administration is now supporting us on this,” New York City Deputy Police Chief Charles F. Dowd, a leading advocate for public safety officials, told the Times.
It’s not smooth sailing yet. Giving the spectrum to public safety officials means that the cost of building out the spectrum will no longer be supported by auction revenues. In fact, Congress mandated the commercial auction to raise money for a dedicated emergency response network following the communication breakdowns of 9/11.
“The FCC might as well start tomorrow…and just say, ‘We're going to start planning for a commercial auction,’ because that's the current law," former FCC official Blair Levin told The Hill.
FCC action could be a good thing for public safety officials because it might spark Congress to act more quickly, Levin said. But that fire doesn’t need to be lit, according to House Homeland Security Chairman Pete King. He told The Hill this week that his legislation to hand the spectrum over to first responders would be floated in congressional chambers shortly.
“In any event, we're going to move forward as quickly as possible with legislation to reallocate the D Block to public safety,” he said.
Jolie Breeden is the lead editor and science communicator for Natural Hazards Center publications. She writes and edits for Research Counts; the Quick Response, Mitigation Matters, Public Health, and Weather Ready Research Award report series; as well as for special projects and publications. Breeden graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.