PSSA asks FCC for FirstNet Authority license at 4.9 GHz, opposes CERCI proposal

A Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) filing this week reiterates its call for the FCC to award a nationwide license of 4.9 GHz spectrum to the FirstNet Authority, ignoring a recent coalition filing that asks the commission to approve rules that would let local jurisdictions largely determine how the airwaves are used.

Jeff Johnson, executive director of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and the author of the PSSA filing, said FirstNet Authority’s nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN)—built by AT&T on the authority’s 700 MHz spectrum—has been successful in creating an ecosystem of devices and applications for public safety. This capability is something that the FCC has stated it is seeking in a band manager for the 50 MHz of 4.9 GHz spectrum.

“Our rationale is very simple: it [the FirstNet model] is proven to be successful, with approaching 6 million connections,” Johnson said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “I think it’s foolish to go backward 20 years to a fragmented system, where every state or county has a different way of dealing with the network. It makes planning, predicting and vying for full operability impossible. We have a public-safety legacy that proves that does not work.

“FirstNet was the first time that anyone solved that on a nationwide basis. We think it would be a serious regression to go back to anything other than a single, nationwide approach, especially when local control is built into it.”

Last month, the new Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) submitted a filing to the FCC that called for the 50 MHz of 4.9 GHz spectrum historically dedicated to public safety to also support critical-infrastructure communications, while local jurisdictions would determine how the spectrum is utilized within its geographic territory.

Although the PSSA proposes that the FirstNet Authority serve as the single band manager nationwide for this 4.9 GHz spectrum, Johnson—a former FirstNet Authority vice chair—emphasized that local public-safety agencies currently determine how they utilize the FirstNet system, and they would have the same type of control at 4.9 GHz.

“Local control, which seems to be the topic of the day, is engineered into the [FirstNet] network,” Johnson said. “It’s not a theory. It’s not a governance model. It exists, is built into the network, and can be controlled in real time by the incident commander—the incident commander can adjust it on the fly.

“To me, FirstNet has proven that the NPSBN was needed, works effectively, and we’re committed to continue to support the network, because it is so successful. Public safety has voted with their feet.”

CERCI Chair Kenneth Corey—retired chief of the New York Police Department (NYPD)—has expressed opposition to the PSSA proposal, noting a concern that incumbent public-safety users of 4.9 GHz spectrum would be removed from the band without being compensated or allowed to maintain their existing services.

Johnson disagreed with such an assertion.

“That’s not true. We overtly state that we will protect incumbents or better their service,” Johnson said.

“We view it the same way we viewed the creation of FirstNet. There were incumbents operating in the 700 MHz space, and we successfully upgraded and moved every one of them to their satisfaction. We see this similarly. There are incumbents in the band. We can protect them or improve their service, at our expense.”

Meanwhile, many have raised concerns that the FCC awarding a nationwide 4.9 GHz license to the FirstNet Authority effectively would mean the valuable spectrum automatically would be controlled by AT&T, the FirstNet Authority’s nationwide contractor building and maintaining the NPSBN.

Johnson said he does not believe that would be the case, noting that FirstNet Authority conducted a procurement that was open to all carriers and other bidders when access to the organization’s licensed 700 MHz spectrum was in question.

“My interpretation, and my history with the [FirstNet] Authority, tells me that those things have to be competed,” Johnson said. “That was our approach with FirstNet the first time, and I believe that’s what the rules are. I think we all believe that’s what the rules are.”