Rockefeller, Waxman Differ on Public Safety Network Plan

A bipartisan majority of Waxman’s committee backed a commercial auction in a recent hearing, and neither Democrats nor Republicans in that committee have backed down since. After Rockefeller announced his bill last month, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he still considered a D-block auction the “most efficient” way forward (CD July 23 p12).

It wouldn’t be surprising if the conflicting legislation raised tension between Waxman and Rockefeller, said a telecom attorney observing the situation. “Waxman rejected calls from influential public safety groups and tried to push a D-block auction bill,” the attorney said. “Now as a result of Rockefeller, Waxman’s bill may go nowhere, plus he has incurred the unhappiness of public safety.” The Rockefeller bill has the advantage, given that the Senate has had the control over legislation this Congress, and momentum public safety has recaptured in recent weeks through lobbying, said Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeff Silva. But even if Waxman realizes that, “pride of authorship” makes it unlikely he will back down, Silva said. Spokeswomen for Waxman and Rockefeller didn’t comment.

The U.S. needs “forward-thinking spectrum policy that promotes smart use of our airwaves -- and provides public safety officials with the wireless resources they need to keep us safe,” Rockefeller said in a statement Thursday night. Spectrum “can grow our economy and put new and innovative wireless services in the hands of consumers and businesses. It can enhance our public safety by fostering communications between first responders when the unthinkable occurs. But it is also scarce."

The Public Safety Alliance applauded the Rockefeller bill. Congress should make the bill “one of its top priorities” and work “quickly through the legislative process to pass this critical legislation,” the alliance said. Verizon believes the bill “combines the best from previous proposals in the House and the Senate and will provide the comprehensive wireless communications support our nation’s first responders need to protect us,” said Verizon General Counsel Steve Zipperstein. The FCC declined to comment.

Rockefeller’s bill would allocate the 10 MHz D-block to public safety, and from fiscal years 2012 through 2017 provide $5.5 million annually to the FCC’s Emergency Response and Interoperability Center. It would direct the FCC to develop technical and operational standards to ensure nationwide interoperability and deployment, and set standards allowing public safety to lease capacity on a secondary, “preemptible” basis to government and commercial users. The bill also would authorize the FCC to share auction proceeds with commercial users that voluntarily relinquish some or all of their frequencies. And it would require a separate auction by Jan. 31, 2013, pairing weather-balloon frequencies between 1675 and 1710 MHz with AWS-3 spectrum between 2155 MHz and 2180 MHz.

The bill would prohibit the FCC from reclaiming frequencies from broadcaster or other licensees “directly or indirectly, on an involuntary basis.” That language pleased NAB: “Broadcasters have no quarrel with incentive auctions that are truly voluntary, and the new legislation provides sound direction for that approach,” a spokesman said.

Money earned from the incentive and other auctions, and public safety network leasing would be funneled into two new funds in the U.S. Treasury for the build out and maintenance of the nationwide public safety network. The first $5.5 billion in proceeds from the incentive auctions would go toward construction, and any extra would go to maintenance. Any proceeds exceeding $11 billion would fund other infrastructure projects, including next-generation air traffic control, high-speed rail and smart grid.

Starting FY 2012, the bill would provide up to $11 billion in appropriations to the NTIA and FCC, which would administer the construction and maintenance funds, respectively. Starting Oct. 1 of this year, the NTIA could borrow up to $2 billion from the Treasury starting Oct. 1, as long as it’s paid back by 2015. Leftover money in the construction fund would go to the maintenance fund, and any maintenance funds left over 10 years after completion of construction would go back to the Treasury. The NTIA would dole out construction funding through a grant program. Under matching rules in the bill, the federal government could not fund more than 80 percent of each project’s costs. Afterward, the FCC would run a program that would reimburse no more than 50 percent of maintenance and operational expenses associated with the public safety network.

To promote competition in the public safety device market, the bill would require devices to use open standards, work on any vendor and across all public safety systems, and be backward compatible with existing 2G and 3G commercial networks. To promote rural deployment, the bill would require the FCC to set rural build out targets for the public safety network, and require construction contracts to include “deployment phases with substantial rural coverage milestones.” The bill also would direct the FCC to set up a public safety advisory board, including representatives from public safety, commercial service providers and manufacturers, and state, local and tribal governments.