WASHINGTON-In a formal ceremony Sept. 16 attended by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt and Assistant Secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Larry Irving, the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee handed over the final version of its report outlining the needs of public-safety wireless users through the year 2010.
“[This report] is valuable as a source document for future proceedings,” said PSWAC Chairman Phil Verveer of the Washington, D.C., law firm Willkie Farr & Gallegher. “The recommendations don’t reflect the precise views of individual members of the steering committee but rather are a result of compromise.”
Harking back to his family’s long involvement in public safety, either as police officers or firefighters, Irving praised PSWAC’s work and the Clinton administration for the promotion of new technology to help meet public-safety goals. Irving also took the opportunity to announce a new NTIA public-safety program headed by PSWAC member Don Speights while asking for the formation of a smaller joint ad hoc group to work with the FCC on future public-safety issues.
“The FCC never has had a way to get the full perspective of needs of the public-safety industry,” Hundt remarked. “We have an in-depth, detailed understanding of those needs in this report.” Hundt mentioned that both presidential candidates have backed auctions as a means of gaining spectrum and that “we’ll be in one fight after another over specific spectrum grants.”
PSWAC’s final report, completed within the one-year timeframe mandated by Congress, took into account changes proposed during the short comment cycle last month, but most of the draft’s wording remained in place. In part, the steering committee recommended that public-safety users be given “access to portions of the unused spectrum in the 746-806 MHz band [UHF TV channels 60-69],” which have been mentioned as possible auction targets. In addition, any channels that might become available following the commission’s final decision on refarming have been targetted by PSWAC as possible congestion-solvers, a plan other private-radio users have opposed.
To cover the costs of any transition to new channels, the PSWAC steering committee suggested that such “alternative funding sources” as revenues gained from spectrum auctions, from non-public safety user fees, from matching funds and block grants, and from forfeitures.
PSWAC conceded that there still are problems regarding spectrum sharing and/or reallocation between public-safety and Department of Defense users. In its draft report circulated last month, the steering committee suggested that the 380-399.9 MHz band currently used by the military be shared in certain circumstances on a non-interference basis.
“The Department of Defense objects to any allocation of this spectrum to public safety, even on a shared basis,” the report said. “DoD states that this band is standardized with U.S. military allies in Europe and elsewhere throughout the world for interoperability during combined actions and that national security considerations preclude its use domestically.” Because of the secure nature of the channels, PSWAC recommended that “individuals within the Executive Branch and the FCC with appropriate security clearances undertake discussions with representatives of the DoD to pursue this matter further.” PSWAC also proposed that sharing opportunities be explored in the 138-144 MHz band.
PSWAC also recommended that public-safety entities make more use of commercial carriers for non-mission critical communications as long as six essential requirements-including priority access, encryption and high reliability-can be met. Hundt lauded this decision, saying, “The public-safety community is a consumer and a user. If agencies work together at the state and local level, there will be better negotiation power and buying power.”
Industry reaction to the final report generally was positive. Rich Feser of E.F. Johnson, a steering-committee company, reiterated EFJ’s support for the document, although he did add that the paper “did not go far enough.”
“We hope the FCC takes this and the next white paper and does something,” he said. “This is an attempt to get something for private systems, and it’s proof that this industry can reach a conclusion for the betterment of people. There is life out there beyond cellular and personal communications services.”
David Wye of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, who is working on the WTB’s white paper on the future of private services, told RCR that the PSWAC process “was a great experience because folks had never really come together like this. We’ve managed to collect all this information from people who put aside their differences for the better good.” The commission needs to “sit down and figure out what we should do now,” he added.
Wye also pointed out that any reference in the report to using UHF channels 60-69 to relieve any public-safety problems could not be implemented in the current public-safety NPRM now under consideration and would have to be addressed in another notice of proposed rulemaking.
Ericsson Inc., another PSWAC steering-committee participant, supported the document in a written statement following release of the final report but expressed concern that it “fails to acknowledge the unanimous consensus reached in the Interoperability Subcommittee that the minimum baseline technology for interoperability for unit-to-unit voice communications should be analog FM. The PSWAC Final Report merely recognizes that `a minimum baseline standard is required to unit-to-unit Public Safety radio equipment operating in the same band.”‘
Ericsson also put in the record that any attempt at analog or digital standard-setting for public-safety equipment should be handled by an accredited standard-setting organization. PSWAC had not been able to reach consensus on this point.
