FCC Should Preserve 4.9 GHz for Public Safety, Former Top FirstNet Officials Say
Two former top FirstNet officials Monday urged the FCC to preserve use of the 4.9 GHz band for public safety to the extent possible, and reverse course to award a single overlay license, during a webinar by the Public Safety…
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Broadband Technology Association. Both support the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance’s recent comments (see 2304130047) on the FCC’s January Further NPRM, which called for issuing a single nationwide overlay license in the band “to an appropriately identified entity that has the expertise necessary to deliver robust services to first responders.” PSSA has long supported a national license (see 2009160067). Public safety “has had this spectrum since 2002,” said Sue Swenson, former FirstNet chair. “Thousands of agencies today have been using it since that time, in a variety of ways.” Public safety recognizes that the band is “underutilized,” but agencies that do use it should be protected, she said. Swanson said. Swanson said she appreciates the FCC’s work to revise how the band is assigned, with a nationwide band manager (see 2301180062). “Several of the details as proposed, if implemented in the manner suggested, won’t necessarily accomplish the commission’s goals,” she said. A nationwide overlay license is “really critical,” she said. PSSA also called for a nationwide band manager to work in conjunction with the nationwide licensee, which is “a little different approach than what the commission has put out there,” she said. Swanson also advocates a mechanism to give public safety traffic automatic preemption over other traffic. “I don’t think public safety can wait for people to do manual intervention and do it reactively,” she said. The rules must also protect existing point-to-point and geographic licenses, she said. The FCC needs a “nationwide approach” on 4.9 GHz, “not going back to this broken-up model” from before FirstNet was launched, said Jeff Johnson, CEO of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and former FirstNet vice chair. A nationwide license “leverages a proven successful model” in FirstNet, which has almost 5 million connections in only six years, Johnson said. FirstNet isn't “perfect: but “five million public safety responders can’t be that wrong,” he said. Replies to the FNPRM are due May 1.