With public safety and Frontline Wireless L.L.C. unable to bridge differences over the critical element of control of a national first-responder/commercial broadband network, and controversy overall tending to cloud rather crystallize issues as regulators fight the clock to write rules for the 700 MHz auction, key stakeholders could be forced to pursue other options-including the one that originally elevated the issue before Congress and the Federal Communications Commission.
Public comments filed at the FCC last week broke little new ground, tending instead to reinforce existing positions by public-safety groups, mobile-phone carriers, consumer advocates, Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt’s Frontline Wireless and Cyren Call Communications Corp.
The 700 MHz rulemaking is chock full of controversy over the proposed band plans, bidder eligibility, buildout requirements and auction design, but the big flashpoint is the Frontline proposal. The plan calls for 10 megahertz of the 60 megahertz being auctioned at 700 MHz to be used with 12 megahertz of adjacent public-safety spectrum for a nationwide wireless broadband network to be built by the private sector for shared used with first responders. The auction, scheduled to begin later this year, could net up to $15 billion for the U.S. Treasury. The FCC wants to issue 700
MHz rules next month to give prospective bidders six months to line up financing and otherwise prepare for the auction.
While the open-access component in Frontline’s plan has attracted support from consumer groups-including those fighting to see net neutrality and new competition injected into the wireless industry-the $120 billion cellphone industry strongly opposes an initiative “full of legal risk, policy flaws, and business uncertainties” that “would create significant uncertainty for both the commercial and public-safety spectrum.”
Public safety, realizing the faint chances of Cyren Call’s legislative push to have half of the auction-bound 60 megahertz redirected to a national first-responder wireless broadband network, now faces the dilemma of dealing with a Frontline plan that’s very much in play but does not give public safety the leverage it wants.
Control issues
Indeed, the network control issue increasingly looks like a potential deal breaker.
“There is a real opportunity to alleviate the current congested and strained environment and to make meaningful improvements to emergency response and preparedness. Yet in many respects the proposals reflected in the FCC’s [proposal] do not recognize the realities of public-safety communications. If left unchanged, the proposals will not only result in no improvements but deny access to the 700 MHz band for many agencies,” the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council told the FCC.
NPSTC includes the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International, trade associations representing firefighters, medics, and police, the American Red Cross and others.
“NPSTC urges the adoption of a national public-safety license and an E Block, but the proposals to deploy and maintain a public-private network will only be viable if all agencies have access and the network represents public-safety standards,” the organization stated. “NPSTC urges the commission to make these precepts emphatic in its rules prior to any auction of the 700 MHz band.”
Potential for compromise?
Frontline favors arbitration-with perhaps the FCC acting as broker-if there is not a meeting of the minds with public safety over technical specifications and operational governance of a national public-safety/commercial broadband network. Frontline rejects the notion of public safety effectively having a veto over a wireless license for which its high-powered Silicon Valley investors could end up spending hundreds of millions of dollars-if not $1 billion or more-at the upcoming 700 MHz auction.
Cyren Call, having a high degree of public-safety support that has eluded Frontline to date, continues to be a force in terms of its advocacy and as a potential 700 MHz bidder.
Cyren Call is pressing for a competitive 700 MHz auction that removes obstacles-such as Frontline’s open-access requirement-to participation by national wireless carriers because it sees public safety better positioned by teaming with a cellular kingpin rather than with Frontline. Sprint Nextel Corp. said it does not plan to bid for 700 MHz licenses.
So now what?
Given the garbled state of affairs, the FCC faces some difficult questions.
Would the agency give its blessing to a Frontline plan without the bottom-line control component demanded by public safety? If so, would the agency sit by if Frontline-hypothetically unable to come to terms with public safety after winning the E-block license-pursues a national wireless network lacking a public-safety partner? It is unclear whether the FCC would be any better off if it were to dilute Frontline’s plan along the lines sought by public safety and industry. Frontline’s investors might call it a day if they determined the 700 MHz regulatory scheme was inconsistent with its business model. Then who would bid on the E block, and would public safety actually be better off joining forces with a major cellular carrier whose business interests do not neatly align with first-responder communicators?
Also, just what would the FCC do about a winning E-block bidder that goes belly up? Perhaps the answer matters little, since potentially protracted litigation would likely ensue. All in all, such a scenario could throw a wrench in public-safety’s broadband aspirations and 700 MHz auction results as well.
Congressional push
Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) sees the FCC 700 MHz rulemaking as a step in the right direction, but fears it falls short in getting first responders the amount of dedicated spectrum needed for a national broadband wireless network. As such, he does not want Congress to give up on the Cyren Call approach.
“I recognize that there is not much time in the legislative calendar to enact legislation before the auction that would accomplish the goals of the public-safety community. Nevertheless, legislation may be necessary,” said Young in a letter last week to Senate Commerce Committee Vice Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). “This is an issue that the Congress, and not just the FCC, should address. I am told that the technical properties of the recovered spectrum make this a unique and even historic opportunity to take advantage of new technology and give public safety what it needs to meet the increasingly dangerous threats that our nation faces, both natural and manmade.”
