Dear Editor,
After Hurricane Katrina devastated southern Mississippi in 2005, more than $110 billion in federal assistance poured into the region, spurring reconstruction. Yet most funds needed for this rebuilding-which remains ongoing-are coming from private sources.
Gulf Coast reconstruction efforts underscore the critical role that public-private partnerships play in responding to such calamity.
One of the post-Katrina challenges partly stems from us not having fully acted on recommendations made after Hurricane Camille struck in 1969. Today, as a nation, we remain entrenched in a cycle of problems being identified-but not implemented-regarding the inability of first responders to communicate in an emergency.
The answer to these public-safety challenges is a national broadband wireless network for interoperability. Frontline Wireless, a company in which I am a founder, has a proposal before the Federal Communications Commission for building just such a network for first responders, at a great savings to taxpayers and under rules of the road for an upcoming FCC spectrum auction that would promote competition and innovation.
To address the national problem of public-safety interoperability, national solutions are needed. And they must be market-based.
Frontline proposes that a slice of the 700 MHz spectrum band that is being cleared as part of the digital television transition be subject to requirements for offering service on a wholesale basis, upholding open-access principles, offering roaming to carriers that need it and providing a free nationwide buildout of public-safety spectrum for broadband applications and interoperability.
“Lessons learned” from the inability of first responders to talk to each on the scene of a disaster are legion. But to turn these lessons into solutions, certain principles must guide decisions that federal policy-makers will make within the next several days:
–Broadband Competition: President Bush has set a goal of affordable broadband access for all Americans by 2007. But he didn’t stop there. When describing this objective in 2004 he noted: “Then we ought to make sure as soon as possible thereafter, consumers have got plenty of choices when it comes to (their) broadband carrier.”
In other words, access and choice go hand in hand. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has noted that a need remains for “a real third broadband competitor.” He’s right. But for the U.S. to compete with the rest of the world on a level broadband playing field, multiple “third pipes” also are needed. Frontline’s plan would create an innovation platform with a national open-access wholesale network to allow multiple retailers to serve local communities.
–New Market Entry: Rapid wireless industry consolidation raises the bar ever higher for technology innovators and small upstarts to enter the market. A bid credit should apply to the spectrum that Frontline proposes for auction. For new competitors to vie for spectrum alongside well-capitalized incumbents at auction, a bid credit is a critical prerequisite to level an enormously uneven playing field.
Congress recognized this in 1993 when it authorized competitive bidding to award spectrum licenses to promote economic opportunity and competition, “ensuring that new and innovative technologies are readily are readily accessible to the public by avoiding excessive concentration of licenses.” But in the last FCC auction, only 4% of nearly $13.7 billion in winning bids came from small bidders who qualified for a credit. Policy-makers have an opportunity to turn this around in the upcoming 700 MHz auction, by ensuring that small players and innovators can truly compete.
–Wireless Innovation: Open-access principles on this limited slice of spectrum real estate would promote choice of equipment that both commercial and public-safety users could employ, creating a “virtuous cycle” of new investment, technology innovation and increased demand for new services. This approach would find a way over the walls that the largest wireless carriers have created around their networks, preventing consumers from gaining access to choice of equipment, applications, content and services. This would also maximize equipment choice for first responders.
–Public-Private Partnerships: First responders need more spectrum to address interoperability requirements during times of crisis. The FCC took an important step in this direction recently when seeking feedback on a public-private partnership approach for a commercial licensee that would be obligated to construct a broadband infrastructure for public-safety and commercial use. The partnership envisioned by Frontline is critical for public safety maintaining control over its own network while relying on a national, market-based plan for funding and building an advanced infrastructure.
This plan will meet local needs and national goals. In 2003, when the president laid out the goal of universal broadband access, he also called for a spectrum-management policy for the 21st century. The focus was on more efficient ways to manage the use of spectrum, which, like other forms of real estate, is a finite resource. A public-private partnership such as that proposed by Frontline would fulfill this vision of more efficient spectrum use by providing public-safety users access to commercial airwaves during emergencies and permitting the commercial licensee to negotiate access to the adjacent public-safety spectrum for periods when it is not in use by first responders.
The only way to reach these important administration goals-broadband deployment, homeland security through better public-safety communications and spectrum efficiency-is to find a way around the current David vs. Goliath battle in which large wireless carriers seek to hoard new bands of spectrum that become available at auction.
New competitors must have an opportunity to provide new answers to these very old questions.
Haynes Griffin,
CEO of Frontline Wireless, Greensboro, N.C.
