D-block Auction Advocates Blitz Capitol Hill
Don’t let public safety and some wireless carriers stop the FCC from auctioning the 700 MHz D-block, former government officials and others on the Connect Public Safety Now coalition told Hill staffers in a pair of briefings Monday. In panels on both sides of the Capitol, the auction advocates dismissed public safety concerns about spectrum sharing, and said AT&T and Verizon are only looking out for themselves. The Senate briefing in the afternoon was well attended by staffers for senators on the Commerce Committee, including aides for Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, Mark Warner, D-Va., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.
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The FCC is required by law to auction the D-block but hasn’t acted. That’s part of the reason why auction advocates have taken their fight to the Hill, said former NTIA Administrator John Kneuer. All five commissioners last year supported the auction approach as recommended in the National Broadband Plan, begging the questions why it hasn’t happened yet, Kneuer said. Congress is divided on the issue. Both parties in the House Commerce Committee support an auction, but House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., supports reallocation to public safety. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., also supports reallocation.
Based on experience with push-to-talk technology, public safety wrongly thinks it can build a network without the help of commercial operators, Kneuer said. But building a nationwide, interoperable data networks is far more complex, he said. Much of the opposition to the public-private partnership approach comes from “outdated assumptions” about public safety needs, said Michael Calabrese, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation. With previous technology it would have been difficult to prioritize public safety over commercial users in a spectrum sharing scenario, but LTE has a prioritization standard built in, said Dennis Roberson, a lobbyist who was formerly chief technology officer of Motorola. “This is easy,” he said.
An aide to Hutchison asked the panelists why AT&T and Verizon say spectrum sharing won’t work. Rural Cellular Association President Steven Berry said it’s “self interest” on the carriers’ parts because they want to eliminate potential competition on 700 MHz.
Former FEMA Director James Lee Witt said D-block reallocation would mean billions lost for the U.S. Treasury and insufficient funds to build and maintain the public safety network. The commercial auction, private-public partnership approach recommended in the National Broadband Plan also would mean a faster build out of the public safety network, Witt said. Americans voted last November to reduce government spending, said Kelly Cobb, government affairs manager of Americans for Tax Reform. Auctioning the D-block will reduce the cost of building the public safety network, he said.
Rural America likely will be left behind if the D-block is reallocated, panelists said. Giving the D-block away to public safety likely will result in a “patchwork” network of a few major cities, said Kneuer. Public safety won’t be able to build networks in rural areas unless they partner with the rural carries there, said Berry.