Rosenworcel Urges Reauthorization of FCC Auction Authority, Use of Funds for 911
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel asked Congress Tuesday to reauthorize FCC auction authority, set to expire Sept. 30, and allow the agency to use auction funds to pay for improvements to 911. Speaking at an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of FirstNet, Rosenworcel said “it’s time to do something similar for 911.” Rosenworcel conceded getting such legislation through Congress won’t be easy.
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The first $7 billion raised through the TV incentive auction was directed to help launch FirstNet, Rosenworcel said. “It was a terrific idea and it’s the network we’re celebrating here today,” she said. Fees on telecom bills helped upgrade 911 systems, along with “a mix of town, county and state funding measures,” she said. “As with first responder communications, it’s time for a nationwide, digital upgrade,” she said. She pegged the likely cost at $12 billion-$15 billion.
Some 600,000 people call 911 every day, Rosenworcel said. “Every one of those calls should be answered by a call center with full access to digital age technologies,” she said: “Every one of those calls should be answered using next-generation 911.”
Rosenworcel was asked about the outlook on bipartisanship at the FCC. “If you’re in public service, you’ve got to go in every day thinking you can make everything a little better,” she said: “You don’t have the criticism and snark that says that you’ll never find a bipartisan partner.”
“It’s easier to extend legislation than it is to go make legislation,” said Kim Zagaris, wildfire policy and technology adviser to the Western Fire Chiefs Association. “We’d be crazy not to get behind the issue, start moving it now,” he said.
“Rosenworcel has demonstrated her leadership and commitment to public safety, recognizing the urgent need to upgrade our nation’s 9-1-1 systems,” emailed APCO Executive Director Derek Poarch: “APCO agrees that Congress should fund the transition to Next Generation 9-1-1 nationwide immediately, whether through the auction of ‘next generation spectrum’ or another source.”
Much of the discussion was on FirstNet's history. First responders needed a network that allowed “ruthless” preemption of other traffic and would survive disaster, said Charles Dowd, former assistant chief at the New York Police Department. One big problem for public safety was communication during events like the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, he said. “That’s a saturation event,” he said: “That’s where everybody is on the network and the network becomes unusable,” he said.
The other problem was major disasters like Hurricane Katrina, Dowd said. “The networks go down -- they just aren’t built to survive during those events,” he said. Surviving those kinds of disasters is the goal of FirstNet, he said: “It is not perfect yet. Let’s be clear about that.” FirstNet, and its partner AT&T, have to acknowledge when things don’t work as expected, he said: “This has to constantly improve and constantly get better.”
Jeff Johnson, CEO of the Western Fire Chiefs Association, said public safety groups that lobbied Congress on FirstNet faced a long list of “nevers” they had to overcome: “You will never get the money out of Congress. If you get the money, you will never get the spectrum. … You will never get both. But if you did, you will never get this through the federal procurement process, and if you did, you would never defend it in court.”
“FirstNet, every single day, needs to continue to listen to first responders, listen to each and every one of you,” said Stephen Benjamin, FirstNet chair and former mayor of Columbia, South Carolina.
Other speakers said FirstNet is growing, but many first responders remain on old networks. “Believe it or not, we still have fire commanders pulling up in their Suburban and throwing the map on the hood of their Suburban and that’s the best tech that they have,” Johnson said.
Harlin McEwen, a retired law enforcement official who led efforts on FirstNet 10 years ago, said from his personal drive tests, FirstNet’s coverage is deeper than that of any other commercial network. “In the last two years, the change is remarkable,” he said: “The coverage has steadily grown.” Not every first responder will be a FirstNet user, he said. “But I really don’t care because those people who aren’t smart enough to use it, that’s just too bad,” he said.
AT&T said in an SEC filing last week it now expects to complete the initial five-year buildout plan of the network this year, ahead of the original March 2023 target date.