APCO Stands Firm on Push for National 700 MHz License

Last week, following the FCC’s en banc hearing in Brooklyn, N.Y., FCC officials said offering the D-block for sale in regional pieces instead of a national license appeared to be gaining momentum as the commission draws up rules for a reauction. Several speakers at the hearing, led by the New York police and fire departments, said some major public safety groups may opt out of a national network (CD July 30 p1).

One public safety official said Martin appears committed to at least finalizing auction rules while he’s chairman, and is examining various proposals. “If the FCC decides to sell regional licenses what would be the size -- that’s not clear,” the official said. “Developing rules for regional licensing would take longer than just a revised version of the first 700 MHz auction.” FCC officials said they've heard little since last week’s hearing. “I'm not sure if people here are even working on it,” one said. But “it is a priority to move forward with proposed rules as a next step,” an FCC spokesman said. “We cannot say when a notice will be voted on.”

“We've tried to analyze the situation from a very high-altitude broad approach, as to what’s really in the best interest of public safety, understanding fully that everybody’s not going to agree with that position,” said Willis Carter, outgoing APCO president, in an interview Wednesday. “The position we have taken is that the right approach is not to do the regional - not that that may not work -- but we just see too many problems with it.”

Carter said APCO members are likely make use of a 700 MHz network at varying speeds and show different levels of interest. “There will be some areas of the country that this will initially be very important for, and others where it will take time,” he said. “The intent is to develop it so that anybody can migrate into it at any given time.”

“I don’t have feelings about how it should come together, as long as it comes together and it is truly the same technology nationwide,” said Donald Root, a long-time APCO member with the wireless services division of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. “Whether it’s done as a series of licenses working with the Public Safety Spectrum Trust or one licensee … I'm cool with it.” Root said the future of the D-block has been a big issue at APCO this week, but only for officials from urban systems. “It’s not a big issue in the North Dakota, South Dakota, middle of the country areas where there isn’t a heavy incumbent use of the 800 MHz band,” he said. “The more dense the area the more spectrum poor we are, especially in the border region where the spectrum is shared with the counterpart country across the border.”

Chris Fischer, new APCO president, said she doesn’t expect a D-block auction before next year. “We know that there are different needs across the country and there may not be a one size fits all [solution], but we really do believe that a national network is the best approach,” she said. “Whether we ultimately end up there or not, I guess is anyone’s guess, but we want to do the best that we can to make sure that all parts of our country have access to broadband data.” Fischer agreed that interest in the 700 MHz spectrum varies widely. “There are parts of the country where this is very critical to them because they don’t have access to spectrum and they need it desperately,” she said.

APCO counsel Robert Gurss said the group as a whole continues to support a national network. “We think the best approach is through a national licensee that’s responsive to the public safety community at all levels,” he said: “Whether or not there is a way to be accommodating to local variations and local needs, maybe there are some more steps that can be taken.” Gurss said that without a national license, “you're going to see limited to roll outs in those areas that have a lot of money and resources -- you're going to have a lot of gaps.”

Gurss said APCO and other public safety groups looked closely at regional licensing prior to the original 700 MHz auction: “This is not a new issue … It bubbled back to the top when the auction failed, but this is an issue we struggled with a year ago.”

The FCC may not have a choice in the end, said Jim Corry, MSV vice president and former Secret Service agent. “It has to be a national network … There has to be consistent capabilities from Maine to Hawaii to Alaska to Louisiana. The real issue is governance. Are the feds going to own it and operate it and ram it down the local throats? Or is it going to be an issue where the feds will build it? The feds will fund it. But there will be local and regional governance.”

Meanwhile, representatives of the Washington, D.C., city government met with Martin and aides to Commissioners Michael Copps and Robert McDowell in recent days to press for regulatory relief so the city can continue to deploy a public safety network in the band. The network is the only one to be built so far in the band. Without “relief from the regulatory uncertainty that has caused further deployment … to stall” the city may have to shut down operations, the D.C. government warned in a June 20 filing. -- Howard Buskirk

APCO Notebook…

The Public Safety Spectrum Trust and its advisor, Cyren Call, were largely left out of the APCO annual conference. Numerous APCO attendees told us there remain “personal” differences between PSST and APCO leadership. Harlin McEwen, chairman of the PSST, was at the conference and had several meetings scheduled, but he wasn’t invited to speak on a 700 MHz panel late Wednesday. Cyren Call officials did not attend the conference, a spokesman said.

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The APCO membership narrowly rejected changes pushed by President Willis Carter and Executive Director George Rice to streamline the group’s leadership structure. Leaders of APCO had proposed a new structure whereby a 14-member board could meet four times a year, or more often as emergency communications issues arise. Currently, APCO is governed by a 52-member executive council that meets only twice a year. The proposed change fell three votes short of the two-thirds majority needed, after a sometimes passionate debate late Tuesday. Carter told us the new structure would have helped APCO react more quickly as issues develop, such as the failure of the 700 MHz D-block auction. “There is so much change occurring … we want to try position the association so that it will be nimble,” he said. “We want to be able to react quickly and we want the ability to vet issues with a well informed, smaller group.” Carter said the proposal will be back next summer. The close vote “said the majority of people believe this is best for our association,” he said. “That’s given us renewed enthusiasm.”