Broadband Plan Likely to Recommend Second D-Block Auction
The National Broadband Plan likely will recommend a reauction of the 700 MHz D-block for a single or possibly multiple public-private partnerships leading to a national wireless broadband network for public safety, Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett told us Wednesday. Barnett said about 25 of the plan’s 400 pages, at this point, are dedicated to public safety issues. He spoke to the APCO winter meeting Tuesday.
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The FCC is receptive to a proposal by leading public safety groups that the D-block be reallocated directly to public safety, Barnett told us. But doing so would require action by Congress. “We have not had the luxury of assuming that the request that some of the groups have made … that that’s something that we can absolutely plan on,” he said. “That’s a congressional action. Congress may or may not decide to do that.”
The commission needs a “plan B” if Congress doesn’t reallocate the D-block as urged by APCO and the other groups, Barnett said. “We do see the public-private partnership as the major vehicle for this happening,” he said. “What would happen is the [Public Safety Spectrum Trust] with the national license, or it might be broken down into regional licenses, maybe even state licenses, those jurisdictions would get them, have a [request for proposals] and they could hopefully contract for service to provide a public safety broadband network.” Barnett stressed: “I don’t want to see another D-block failure. We want people to bid on the D- block. We also want carriers, providers to want to provide this service.”
The FCC hopes the public safety network would be built out at the same time as commercial broadband networks because of “the tremendous savings” that would be realized, Barnett said. “It would be twice as expensive if it’s done at a different time. That’s why I am impressing the urgency of this because we really need to get going on this and have the public safety network concept in place before these networks get going too far.”
The NBP will likely provide a “strong tilt” in favor of LTE for the network, Barnett said. “That’s obviously influenced by the fact that most major public safety communications organizations have pointed that out.” Roaming will also be key, he said. The bureau is considering a broad roaming requirement for all who contract to provide communications services for public safety, he said. “With the public safety spectrum, the D-block would have the requirement for roaming, but then also if you contracted with the C-block or the A-block or the B-block” a carrier would have the same requirement, he said. “What that does is provides a great deal of flexibility and resiliency, we think, for the network.” Roaming would have to be made available at rates offered to the largest customer at “most favored customer” prices, he said.
The NBP will also likely recommend grants to offset the cost of the difference between the way the commercial network would be build out under normal circumstances and how it has to be built to meet the unique requirements of public safety, such as resiliency, backup power or expansion in areas that otherwise might not be profitable to serve, Barnett said. “The advantage to this is it allows the network to evolve and the commercial network to evolve so that we don’t have stranded technology.” The plan is also expected to discuss the need for a financial mechanism to pay for the operating expenses of a public safety network to make sure the “network evolves,” he said.
Another expected recommendation is the creation of an Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC) to coordinate emergency communications nationwide, Barnett said. “ERIC will be something that will on a day-to-day basis make sure that standards work, that roaming actually works, that any disputes between jurisdiction on interoperability are worked out.” The FCC said this week it will hold a forum Feb. 10 to discuss creation of this center.
Barnett also told us his message to APCO and public safety groups in general is the FCC is listening to their concerns as it develops the NBP. “We of course have gotten a great deal of information from the public safety community through the forums that we have done, through filings, through discussions that we have had, to make sure that we understand the requirements and the needs and what the possibilities are,” he said. “That’s going to be reflected in the plan that will come out on or maybe a day or two before March 17.”