Apr 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Donny Jackson (donald.jackson@penton.com)

The commission's plan for a public-safety broadband network offers lots of promise, but also raises a host of questions that first responders want answered.

Two years ago, a failure to auction a swath of 700 MHz spectrum — aka the D Block — to commercial entities shattered the FCC's hopes to establish a nationwide, interoperable, broadband wireless network for public safety. Now, the commission has unveiled a new blueprint for the much-anticipated network as part of its overarching national broadband plan.

Many aspects of the proposal are familiar: a public-safety broadband wireless network built on 700 MHz spectrum that would leverage commercial 4G technologies and economies of scale to provide first responders with access to the latest technical innovations and applications at prices that are more in line with commercial wireless offerings. But the new proposal includes some key contrasts that FCC officials hope will attract commercial bidders to participate in a new D Block auction in early 2011, which would increase the likelihood that the public-safety network will become a reality.

Most noteworthy among these differences is potential funding. Two years ago, the FCC pursued a public-private partnership that called for the D Block winner to finance the proposed public-safety network with no supplemental revenue. This time, the FCC has asked Congress to ensure that $12 billion to $16 billion is available during the next decade to help pay for the deployment and operation of the first-responder network.

In addition, the new plan has a decidedly different technical approach. Instead of a network limited to the 20 MHz of spectrum licensed to public safety and the D Block winner, the proposed network would give first-responder agencies a dedicated network on public safety's 10 MHz broadband swath and priority access when roaming on commercial networks, supported by as much as 70 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band. This multiple-network strategy is designed to provide public safety with additional capacity and redundancy that should result in greater reliability, according to FCC officials.

Furthermore, the new proposal provides public safety with flexibility to pursue a variety of partnership arrangements — an approach advocated by several chiefs in major cities that have requested FCC waivers to allow early buildouts of local private broadband networks — instead of a one-size-fits-all national approach.

An unfortunate similarity between the two FCC plans is that both are plagued by uncertainty in key areas. Two years ago, commercial carriers cited concerns over the business model for the unprecedented public/private partnership with public safety as a primary reason for why they did not bid on the D Block. For its part, public safety was concerned about reliability, redundancy and accessibility.

Today, the new FCC's plan faces similar hurdles as it ventures into what still is uncharted territory. Carriers are not sure what the economic model for working with public safety will look like. Public safety is not sure how roaming with priority access will work and who will pay for it. And no one is certain whether the all-important funding component will become a reality, particularly as lawmakers focus on re-election campaigns amid criticism about the mounting national deficit and federal spending programs.

"Right now — without funding and without priority access — all you've got is an auction for 10 MHz [of D Block spectrum] that doesn't benefit public safety at all," said Richard Mirgon, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO).

There is time to address these issues, but not much. In addition to the political realities of congressional re-elections in the fall, the FCC's latest proposal depends heavily on the ability to build out the public-safety broadband network in conjunction with commercial carrier deployments that will begin in earnest before the end of the year. Failing to build the network within this window would at least double the cost of building public safety's network, according to the FCC.

"We get one at bat and one swing," Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC's public safety and homeland security bureau, said during a February meeting. "If we do not execute this network with alacrity, we will miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Broadband blueprint

The FCC's public-safety broadband network proposal is a component of its national broadband plan designed to make high-speed access to digital information commonplace and affordable throughout the United States — for individuals, enterprises and government entities, including first-responder agencies. The 376-page document is the result of an information-gathering exercise executed during the past year that was unprecedented in scope and depth for a regulatory proceeding.

Under the proposal, the D Block would be auctioned to a commercial operator, probably early next year. The D Block winner would be under no obligation to help build the public-safety network, but it would be required to use the same air-interface technology as public safety — presumably LTE — and provide roaming with priority access to emergency-response organizations.

Public-safety LTE infrastructure would be deployed at 35,000-41,000 commercial sites to provide coverage for 95% of the U.S. population, at an estimated cost of less than $4 billion. To provide coverage in more rural areas that are not economically feasible for commercial carriers to serve, public safety would need to deploy infrastructure independently. In addition, vehicular systems and emergency mobile communications systems would be deployed to fill coverage or capacity gaps in the network.

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