Are lawmakers finally addressing public-safety issues?
It would seem so. Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) introduced a bill that would stop the FCC from auctioning 12 megahertz of new private wireless spectrum and allow regulators to impose lease fees on licensees. And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has authored a bill that sets aside four channels for public safety in the 60-69 broadcast frequencies and addresses funding needs for law enforcement and other emergency personnel.
Neither bill is assured passage, but this is nothing new for an industry whose communications needs got trampled over as the nation’s leaders raced to see how much money could be milked from auctioning private communications spectrum.
But the free-flow of PCS cash has stopped. In fact, the perceived value of personal communications spectrum has dropped because there is too much spectrum available.
If the wireless industry is going to gain back the money it already has invested in personal communications spectrum, it would be wise to divert lawmakers’ attentions away from auctions, where the primary goal seems to be to raise money. In other words, the commercial wireless industry should support public-safety communications needs. And public safety needs spectrum and a fee payment system in lieu of auctions.
Show support. Stop the flow of private communications spectrum into the marketplace and do some good for all of us at the same time.
Consider what Lyle Gallagher, director of communications for North Dakota, said about the state’s statewide central dispatch system in light of the spring flooding in Grand Forks: “One thing about having an all public communications system is when people are used to working together on a day-to-day basis, when you get into a flood situation, it makes it easier to communicate. What people have a problem with is they want to do what they did on a daily basis … What we’ve done in our planning is to have people working together on a daily basis, and it’s been phenomenal how people have been working together.”
Gallagher also pointed out that “ordinary” emergencies continued during the flooding.
Different emergency personnel should be able to talk with each other in emergencies. Law enforcement budgets aren’t overflowing with cash. It’s that simple. Sens. McCain and Breaux have figured that out.
