Questions Raised about FCC’s Public Safety Broadband Plan
The FCC still does not adequately understand and has not addressed concerns about the agency’s proposal for a national public safety wireless broadband network and the need the public safety community has for control of the 700 MHz D-block, public safety officials said Tuesday during a hearing by the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Communications. But Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau, defended the agency in his testimony before the panel. Subcommittee Chairwoman Laura Richardson, D-Calif., said she was troubled by the concerns expressed by the public safety officials and would ask the FCC to respond directly.
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Jeff Johnson, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, said public safety officials did not play a big enough role in preparing the FCC’s proposal for the public safety network. “We have had numerous communications with the FCC. I think Adm. Barnett fairly characterizes his openness and the openness of the FCC to talk with us. But there is a difference between feeling heard and having a dialogue,” Johnson said. “We do not feel that they feel our urgency and feel the severity of our opinion as the users of this system.”
Johnson said public safety officials remain concerned about how the FCC handled its decision on the network, unveiled in February at a press conference and encapsulated in the National Broadband Plan in March. “The National Broadband Plan came out before we had an in depth discussion of the merits of that broadband plan and the discussion about what capacity the system has and what our needs are,” Johnson said.
"We have heard recently the allocation of the D-block to public safety referred to as a gift,” said Charles Dowd, deputy chief of the New York City Police Department. “This is an inaccurate characterization. It is an investment in our national security that is desperately needed.” Public safety “cannot rely” on the network envisioned by the FCC, in which public safety agencies would get priority access and the ability to roam on networks operated by commercial carriers, he said: “Every experience that we've ever had tells us that commercial networks will not be there when we need them in an emergency.”
Dowd cited the example of what happened when New York Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle crashed his plane into a Manhattan apartment building in 2006, dying in the crash. “We had close to 650 first responders at the scene,” he said. “I got screamed at the next day because they said my cellphone, my data, nothing worked. I couldn’t get any information. And again it’s because the only priority they had was what they call next in queue priority or as [Barnett] referred to it earlier, first in line priority. That simply will not work for public safety.”
Dowd assured Richardson New York City will invest in its network regardless of federal funding. “The city is prepared to commit those funds because they understand the value of broadband services,” he said. “That’s why we've already build the broadband system in New York City. The mayor directed that five years ago. It operate on different spectrum that doesn’t give the kind of … in-building coverage that we need, but the monies are there."
Richardson asked Johnson and Dowd to send her by the end of the week recommendations on what they would like to see the Department of Homeland Security and FCC do to address their concerns. “I will forward it from this committee to them,” she said. “Feel free to, in the letter, to say that it’s under my direction; that way you don’t have to look like the bad guys. I do.”
Barnett spoke in the first panel of the day, and did not have a chance to respond to the most recent round of criticism from the public safety officials. But he said in his testimony the FCC plan remains the preferable alternative to giving public safety the D-block without adequate funding to build out a network.
"We must plan for the worst situation, the next 9/11,” Barnett said. “In that situation, even an additional 10 MHz, like the D-block, will likely not be enough. The FCC plan calls for public safety to have the ability to have priority access and roam to commercial networks, so first-in-line privileges on up to 60 or 70 additional megahertz. This feature has an additional advantage the reallocating the D-block alone does not. It can provide immediate resiliency and redundancy if the public safety network goes down as happened in March of this year."
The FCC drew on advice from public safety agencies looking at 27 different proposals in devising its alternate plan, Barnett said. “On much of the plan we agree with public safety,” he said. “We agree on LTE technology, on priority access and roaming, on the interoperability center, on the need for public funding, on hardening the network, on coverage in rural areas and the need for consumer-priced, ruggedness devices.” Barnett said the FCC examined throughly the option of giving public safety direct control of the D-block. “Our data suggest that reallocation of the D-block could greatly increase the cost of construction of the network, perhaps by as much as $9 billion over a 10-year period.” A network built around the D-block would also be more expensive to operate, maintain and upgrade, he said. “Reallocation would inhibit economies of scale, making the devices and equipment more expensive, just as it is now for its voice networks.” Barnett assured lawmakers the decision is ultimately in their hands.
The FCC was directed by Congress to auction the D-Block and tried to do so in 2008, but that auction failed when no qualified bidder stepped forward to place a minimum bid of $1.3 billion for the rights to the license. Barnett said there was extensive dialogue between the commission and public safety agencies throughout the development of the National Broadband Plan’s public safety recommendations. Barnett said the FCC and his bureau are open to continuing the dialogue with public safety officials to come to a resolution and move forward with the buildout of the network.
Richardson said she’s deeply concerned about the continuing state of emergency communications in the U.S. She questioned how much has been improved since the Sept. 11 attacks. “Public safety was unable to communicate effectively with one another,” she said. “But today, nearly 10 years later, after the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, we are still waiting. I must say as chair of this committee it’s very disappointing."
Richardson said many questions remain about the FCC proposal. “While we know much time and effort has gone into this plan we still have questions about whether it is the best solution for public safety,” she said, citing in particular questions about how roaming and priority access would work. “The subcommittee needs more assurances, and I would say that the public safety community does as well … that these features will provide adequate resources and capacity for public safety to meet its mission critical needs,” she said. “Clearly, there has been a disconnect and public safety seems to be on the outside."
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., ranking member of the subcommittee, said he views giving the D-block directly to public safety as a superior alternative to the FCC proposal.