Lots of work needed to make 700 MHz proposal a reality

Aug 7, 2008 10:51 AM, By Donny Jackson

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“Everything that was said is important, and we understand that,” McEwen said after yesterday’s panel discussion. “But, it’s a little like putting the cart before the horse. … It doesn’t make sense for us to try to get into the weeds of how [public-safety user] agreements would be structured when we don’t have D Block partner and there’s no guarantee that the network will ever exist.

“Right now, I’m focused on trying to get rules developed that will work, ensuring that we have a successful auction and negotiating an agreement with the D Block winner.”

From a technical perspective, APCO has submitted recommended changes to the FCC regarding the rules governing the commercial D Block, which failed to attract a successful bidder earlier this year.

To create a greater financial incentive for a commercial operator to bid on the 10 MHz D Block—to be coupled with public safety’s 10 MHz swath of broadband spectrum to provide the foundation of the network—APCO suggests that public-safety users have pre-emptive rights on no more than 50% of the network’s capacity instead of the 100% proposed during the first failed auction attempt.

“This may seem like a concession,” Sean O’Hara of Syracuse Research said during the panel discussion. “But, if this [network] is not built, we’re not going to get to use more than that 10 MHz anyway.”

O’Hara said it also is important to manage usage of the network efficiently, to ensure that capacity is available to public safety when needed and to maximize the business opportunity for a commercial partner. Among other things, O’Hara said that network data rates should be dependent on the device used, offering the example that large image files typically can be compressed if they are going to be view on the small screen of a handheld device.

Derek Poarch, chief of the FCC’s public safety and homeland security bureau, on Monday said addressing the 700 MHz broadband issue for public safety is a priority for the agency but declined to speculate on whether the commission would issue rules on the matter this year.