PSSA claims CERCI ‘wrong’ in opposing FirstNet Authority-centric 4.9 GHz proposals

Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) proposals to have the FCC grant the FirstNet Authority with access to 4.9 GHz spectrum is both legal and operationally practical, despite assertions to the contrary from the Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI), according to a recent PSSA filing.

PSSA has long proposed that the FCC should grant the FirstNet Authority with a nationwide license—either directly or indirectly—to the 4.9 GHz band dedicated to public safety, so it could adapt the FirstNet model to the spectrum in a manner that would address the FCC’s concerns about underutilization of the band. However, CERCI and its legal team has argued that such a license would be “unlawful,” claiming that the FCC is not allowed to make such a grant to a federal entity like the FirstNet Authority and that the FirstNet Authority could not accept it.

PSSA disputed these conclusions in a filing submitted last week to the FCC.

“CERCI’s approach is wrong, from top to bottom: its legal analysis is unsound, and its proposal for the use of the 4.9 GHz band would perpetuate the band’s chronic under-utilization,” according to the PSSA filing.

In particular, the PSSA filing disagrees with the CERCI claim that the 2012 law that established the FirstNet Authority—and directed the FCC to grant a nationwide 700 MHz license to the new entiry—would prohibit the FirstNet Authority from operating on other spectrum bands, like 4.9 GHz.

“CERCI misinterprets the 2012 Act’s grant of a specific license the FirstNet Authority in the 700 MHz band as somehow restricting the FirstNet Authority’s operation to that and only that band. CERCI is incorrect.,” the PSSA filing states. “Nothing in the 2012 Act limits the Commission’s broad pre-existing authority. The provision cited by CERCI expands the Commission’s powers by authorizing, and directing, the agency to issue a license with respect to the 700 MHz band. There is no basis for interpreting that provision as a limit on the Commission’s authority.”

In addition, the 2012 law does not prohibit the FCC from awarding the FirstNet Authority a license to spectrum other than the 700 MHz airwaves identified by Congress, according to the PSSA.

“The 2012 Act authorizes the Commission to ‘take any action necessary to assist the First Responder Network Authority in effectuating its duties and responsibilities under this subchapter,” according to the PSSA filing. “Far from limiting the Commission’s authority, therefore, the 2012 Act anticipates that the Commission may take the actions needed to accomplish the law’s purposes, which necessarily includes expanding the bands on which the network could operate.”

If the FCC determines it cannot grant a nationwide 4.9 GHz license to the FirstNet Authority, the PSSA has proposed an alternative that could achieve a similar result—having the FCC grant the nationwide 4.9 GHz license to a band manager, which would be directed to enter into a sharing agreement with the FirstNet Authority. This approach also would legal, according to the PSSA.

“The 2012 Act also fully empowers the FirstNet Authority to enter into a sharing agreement to operate on the 4.9 GHz band,” the PSSA filing states. “Section 6206(a) authorizes the FirstNet Authority ‘[t]o exercise, through the actions of its Board, all powers specifically granted by the provisions of this subtitle, and such incidental powers as shall be necessary’ and ‘[t]o take such other actions as the First Responder Network Authority (through the Board) may from time to time determine necessary, appropriate, or advisable to accomplish the purposes of [the 2012 Act].’

“In addition, Section 6206(b)(1) authorizes the FirstNet Authority to ‘take all actions necessary to ensure the building, deployment, and operation of the nationwide public-safety broadband network.’ Section 6206(b)(4)(D) authorizes the FirstNet Authority to ‘take such other actions as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes set forth [under its duty and responsibility to deploy and operate a nationwide public safety broadband network].’”

In its filings, CERCI has questioned whether incumbent users of the 4.9 GHz band would be protected in a scenario in which the FCC granted the FirstNet Authority access to the spectrum via a direct or indirect spectrum license. PSSA indicated that such concerns should be addressed by the FCC in any decision the agency makes on the matter.

“Under the PSSA’s proposal, the FirstNet Authority would operate subject to the Commission’s [FCC’s] rules and the band manager’s protection of incumbent licensees from harmful interference,” the PSSA filing states. “By asserting that the FirstNet Authority would control the 4.9 GHz band, CERCI has mischaracterized the PSSA’s proposal and ignored what rights and responsibilities the FirstNet Authority would have through a sharing agreement with the band manager.”

Meanwhile, the PSSA reiterated its believe that its FirstNet Authority proposal remains the best solution for providing 5G connectivity to public safety, addressing the FCC’s spectrum-utilization concerns for the 4.9 GHz, and to make the spectrum band practically available to the most first responders.

“The PSSA’s proposal to permit the FirstNet Authority to enter into a leasing agreement to use the 4.9 GHz band offers the chance to dramatically increase utilization of and lower costs for the band in a manner that is well-grounded in existing statutory authority,” the PSSA filing states. “Maintaining the status quo will not benefit public safety, and it risks perpetuating communications silos that make public-safety coordination a challenge during daily and operationally critical incidents.

“It would also deprive first responders of key technological advances associated with 5G that could speed the availability of timely information to public safety and save lives. And it would likely have the perverse effect of exacerbating existing inequalities associated with public-safety deployments in the band—as it stands today, only those public-safety entities with extensive funding can afford programs that would provide them access to the 4.9 GHz band. Even for the public-safety agencies with the necessary resources, attempts to deploy balkanized broadband networks in the band have not been successful.”