The Senate Commerce Committee is giving the National Telecommunications and Information Administration some congressional oversight on its billion dollar public-safety radio program, reports RCR News.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and ranking member Ted Stevens (”Tubes”) said the “Interoperable Emergency Communications Act” is designed to give NTIA guidance in distributing $1 billion worth of public-safety radio interoperability grants by Sept. 30.
In addition to giving NTIA a roadmap for making public-safety interoperability grants, the bill would allow up to $100 million of the $1 billion to be used for technology reserves to assist emergency-response agencies in pre-positioning communications equipment so it can be quickly activated in the event of a major emergency or natural disaster.
NTIA, which already said it will rely heavily on the Department of Homeland Security to implement the public-safety interoperability grant program, has yet to make a single grant since the new fiscal year began Oct. 1.
Lawmakers also may be concerned about the Bush administration’s track record to date in efforts to improve public-safety communications interoperability. DHS has spent nearly $3 billion since the Sept. 11, 2001, but concedes most cities and regions still lack essential technology, political consensus and infrastructure to enable first responders to communicate with each other during emergencies.
The $1 billion earmarked for interoperable public-safety communications grants will be paid for with auction revenues from the future sale of TV spectrum. TV licensees are returning the spectrum to the government as part of their move into digital.
Two megacontracts, each with ceilings in the tens of billions of dollars, will be awarded in 2007.
Networx, a huge telecommunications services contract that replaces FTS-2001, has two parts. One is for nationwide services, while the second is for more niche, localized solutions. Nearly every major carrier is a bidder, but only time will tell if the contract succeeds as a vehicle for improving service and driving down costs.
The $10 billion Integrated Wireless Network (IWN), a joint effort between the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury, is envisioned to support about 80,000 federal officers in all 50 states. The IWN design is based on VHF, Project 25 radios with a packet switched Internet Protocol (IP) backbone.
DailyWireless has more on Oregon’s $500 Million Statewide Wireless Network.
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