Ten years after O’Brien proposal, there is light at the end of the tunnel for public-safety broadband communications

At the same time, the FCC created the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), an entity led by longtime first-responder advocate Harlin McEwen that received no government funding and only one tangible asset: the license to 10 MHz of public-safety spectrum. Adjacent to this swath was the 10 MHz D Block, which the FCC would license to the highest bidder in the 2008 spectrum auction. The D Block winner would strike a deal with the PSST to build a public-safety network utilizing the D Block airwaves and the frequencies licensed to the PSST—20 MHz total.

Some amazing efforts were made in preparation for that auction. Cyren Call essentially funded the PSST’s operations, loaning the entity several million dollars with no promise of repayment. Many people in the user and consulting communities with busy day jobs—primarily working with public-safety LMR networks—volunteered countless hours to develop performance requirements for a broadband network.

Such assessments were difficult, because there were no obvious reference points during the summer and fall of 2007. It wasn’t clear what performance metrics were realistic or how public safety would even use a wireless broadband network, if one was available. No one was sure whether LTE, WiMAX or UMB would be the predominant 4G standard and there were no large-scale deployments of any of these technologies—the first LTE network would not be deployed until December 2009. The iPhone was not released until late June of that year.

Alas, the D Block auction proved to be unsuccessful, as no qualifying bid meeting the $1.3 billion minimum asking price was submitted. After receiving scrutiny from Congress, Cyren Call and the PSST parted ways a year later, with Cyren Call remaining unpaid for its loan to the PSST.

Ultimately, the spring of 2009 proved to be pivotal, with public-safety entities pursuing the buildout of broadband networks via individual federal grants that were included in an omnibus stimulus package. In addition, meetings were conducted that led to the creation of the Public Safety Alliance (PSA), which advocated on behalf of public safety for legislation that allocated the D Block to first responders, provided $7 billion in funding and established FirstNet to oversee the buildout of a nationwide public-safety broadband network.