Upton, Walden Question Wisdom of D-Block Reallocation

Current law requires commercial auction of the D-block, “and doing otherwise would create a roughly $3 billion dollar hole in the budget that we cannot afford,” Upton said. Walden said it’s “strange … that the debate on public safety communications has been so focused on the 700 MHz D-block.” With its existing 100 MHz of exclusive spectrum, public safety “has more spectrum than the vast majority of wireless providers, who, as is oft cited, provide 16-year-old customers with more capabilities than those available to our first responders,” he said.

The Rockefeller-Hutchison draft to revise the current auction law is “a well thought-out proposal” that should be considered, said subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Either an auction or reallocation could work, “but recent developments appear to favor reallocation,” said committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Waxman said he’s suggested to Upton that the committee “emulate” the Rockefeller legislation and pass a bill before the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The Rockefeller-Hutchison draft “goes a long way towards addressing concerns about governance, accountability, interoperability and how we pay for the public safety network,” Waxman said. The committee’s Democrats last year joined the GOP in supporting an auction, but they appeared to open up to reallocation after President Barack Obama supported that approach.

Public safety is “woefully” under-using 24 MHz of spectrum cleared for them in the DTV transition, dedicating half to narrowband voice, Walden said. He asked why public safety’s existing 10 MHz of broadband spectrum wasn’t enough. Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., agreed: “It seems to me … if you aren’t using the 24 MHz properly or efficiently, why would we give you 10 more?” Reallocation seems like an overly “simplistic” answer, and Terry doesn’t believe the Rockefeller bill “really attacks or goes to the problem,” he said.

A problem with using only the existing 10 MHz is that “a number of large 700 MHz narrowband voice systems [are] already deployed or in the process of being deployed,” said Directions President Joe Hanna. He was formerly president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials. Those voice systems can’t be migrated to broadband because there’s no standard for mission-critical broadband voice, Hanna said. Such a standard could be 5-10 years away, he predicted.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., asked what happened to the 24 MHz and $13 billion in federal money that Congress gave to public safety in the past decade. Those resources “have gone to many places, and that’s part of our problem,” said Hanna. Johnson said “it has mostly been spent looking backwards.” Much money was spent on core operability, and wholesale replacement of radios to meet federal narrowband requirements, he said.

Witnesses cautioned against comparing the network capacity needs of commercial and public safety networks. “Commercial systems are more likely to have broad use throughout” the network, but emergencies are likely to “overwhelm a single site,” said CEO Jeffrey Johnson of the Western Fire Chiefs Alliance. Public safety only will need localized high capacity in areas with an emergency, but since the location of a crisis can’t be predicted, it’s critical to have high capacity everywhere, said Harris RF Technology Group Chief Technology Officer Dennis Martinez. Walden asked if that was the most efficient use of spectrum: “You need it when you need it, but how often is it going to just sit there fallow?”

Both parties appeared to support some type of partnership between government and industry. Walden said he favors a public-private partnership to build, operate and maintain the public safety network. Eshoo said Congress should “leverage the strength of the private sector and establish an independent entity that has the responsibility for building and overseeing then network.” Public safety will partner with industry if the D-block is reallocated, said Johnson. It’s not efficient to replicate existing infrastructure, he said. “The last thing I think we want is to shut down and overwhelm a commercial system,” because in an emergency people on the commercial network need to be able to communicate with public safety, he said.

Who governs the network is a key issue for Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., she said. Matsui asked how to ensure accountability of the new entity. And Eshoo said she'll reintroduce public safety device legislation she co-sponsored last year with Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., and former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. That bill provided grants to equipment makers for public safety devices. Eshoo said she hopes the bill will be part of comprehensive public safety legislation considered by the committee.

Citing FCC estimates, Eshoo asked why a public safety device costs as much as $5,000, while a “state-of-the-art” commercial device costs “a few hundred dollars.” Motorola CTO Paul Steinberg disputed the price tag for public safety devices, saying they cost “considerably less” than $5,000. Comparing commercial and public safety devices is like comparing “apples and oranges,” he said. Public safety devices and networks are built to be much more resilient and reliable than commercial ones, so there’s additional cost, he said.

While the hearing was happening, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., issued a written statement supporting D-block reallocation. King urged Upton to take up his bill (HR-607) “as soon as possible so that we can provide our nation’s first responders with the tools they require to fulfill their mission.” Testifying before King’s committee the same day, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, supported reallocation. “This is a no brainer,” Hamilton said. To move forward, however, the King bill must have the Commerce Committee’s blessing.

Commerce Committee Republicans’ concerns with the reallocation highlight the difficulty of passing public safety legislation this year, MF Global analyst Paul Gallant wrote investors. If the Rockefeller-Hutchison bill wins bipartisan support at the committee’s upcoming markup, Gallant said “it could create new momentum toward passage.”