WASHINGTON—The National Emergency Number Association has added its voice to the chorus calling for a national debate on a proposal to set aside 30 megahertz of spectrum in the upper 700 MHz band for a next-generation public-safety network that the wireless industry would build and share with first responders.
“NENA strongly supports immediate public discussion of the allocation of 30 megahertz of contiguous spectrum in the 700 MHz spectrum band to be held in trust for public safety to create a nationwide public-safety broadband network. There are certainly technical, operational and policy details in such a plan that will need to be worked out among all relevant parties. However, without an opportunity to discuss the merits and details of the proposal we will never have a chance to realize the gains we believe will come from such a plan,” reads a statement adopted by the NENA board of directors. “NENA requests that Congress and the Federal Communications Commission initiate proceedings in an accelerated manner to seek public comment on the Cyren Call Communications Inc. proposal to license this spectrum to a public-safety trust for public-safety use and for the creation and use of a national-broadband network, beginning such proceedings immediately in the interest of public safety and our nation’s homeland security.”
Cyren Call welcomed NENA’s call for a national debate on its proposal.
“The leaders of NENA share our belief that we can’t lose this valuable opportunity to improve public-safety communications, and that debate should take place before this valuable spectrum is auctioned off and lost for good,” said John Melcher, Cyren Call’s executive vice president for external affairs. “We hope that Congress will hear these voices in the public-safety community and ultimately agree to use this public asset in a way that best serves America.”
NENA promotes “effective and accessible” 911 services in North America.
Earlier this month, the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials endorsed the Cyren Call proposal.
Cyren envisions a public-private partnership with commercial operators that would underwrite network-infrastructure deployments in the 700 MHz band. First responders and others would have preferential access to the 30-megahertz block during emergencies, but would otherwise occupy a very small portion of the network capacity to satisfy day-to-day public-safety requirements.
The FCC has yet to act on the Cyren petition. However, recently the agency said it was reconsidering the band plan for the 700 MHz auction, but gave no indication of support for the Cyren proposal.
“NENA appreciates the innovative approach and the significant potential benefits to the public-safety community of this plan. We also appreciate the timing of this proposal. Our nation has a one-time opportunity to take advantage of the clearance of a nationwide block of 30 megahertz of frequencies in the 700 MHz spectrum band. These frequencies are adjacent to spectrum currently occupied by public safety or allocated for use by public safety and would provide additional spectrum and capacity for a next-generation broadband network because of its one-of-a-kind physical properties,” said NENA. “The spectrum offers perhaps the last meaningful chance for creating a fully interoperable, advanced public-safety emergency-communications system capable of using broadband and wideband technologies linking each and every local, state and federal emergency-response entity.”
Congress designated for public safety 24 megahertz of the spectrum that was used as part of the transition to digital TV; the rest is to be auctioned.
“NENA wishes to make clear that having such a public discussion should not in any way delay the ongoing deployment of interoperable systems in the 24 megahertz already allocated for public safety,” said NENA.
Earlier this year, Congress said the revenues from the 700 MHz spectrum auction should be used for various purposes including public-safety interoperability and a set-top box subsidy as part of the DTV transition. Wireless carriers have been fighting for access to the spectrum for years.
