dailywireless.org » McCain Rethinks 700MHz Legislation

McCain Rethinks 700MHz Legislation

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced a public-safety broadband bill that veers from the approach advocated by Cyren Call Communications, first-responder groups and even the Arizona Senator himself. The new approach more closely resembles Frontline Wireless, which introduced a new plan for utilizing 700 MHz for Public Service this week.

According to RCR Wireless:

McCain’s “Spectrum Availability for Emergency-Response and Law-Enforcement to Improve Vital Emergency Services Act” calls for the FCC to auction half of the 60 megahertz at 700 MHz under a conditional license whereby the winning bidder would have to meet public-safety specifications to operate a national, interoperable public-safety broadband system. The 700 MHz auction is expected to be held later this year.

Cyren Call wants to create a broadband trust that would raise roughly $5 billion from private investors to pay for an additional 30MHz of spectrum that would be available for “dual use”. Instead of Congress or local governments footing the bill for building out a public safety network that could cost more that $10 billion, Cyren Call would pay the cost to build and run the network — under the condition that both commercial and public service would share the band. Public service would get priority access on an as needed basis. Cyren Call argues that the 24 megahertz at 700 MHz which has been set aside exclusively for public safety use is not enough.

Critics say the additional 30 MHz of spectrum that Cyren wants is worth billions more than what Cyren Call plans to pay. They argue that Cyren’s “dual-use” would leave rural areas with little public safety coverage.

The FCC has their own proposal, designating half of that 24 MHZ (12 MHz) for broadband public-safety communications. Currently most 700 MHz public safety radios, such as the $3500, interoperable Project 25 radios, use narrow-band talk channels. They rarely get above 10Kbps. Broadband could deliver 50 times that speed — and travel much further than cellular or mobile WiMAX by using the 700 MHz spectrum, rather than the 2GHz-2.5GHz spectrum.

Mobile-phone and high-tech sectors strongly oppose the Cyren Call plan. They say public service users have sufficient spectrum. Market-based alternatives can address any spectrum needs, they say. Auctioning airwaves to the highest bidder would be better for everyone. The Department of Homeland Security does not appear to agree.

According to McCain’s bill:

“The bill also would establish a “Public Safety Interoperable Working Group” (the Working Group) to establish user driven specifications for public safety’s use of the 30 MHz and then require the FCC to auction the 30 MHz under a “conditional license” that requires any winning bidder to meet public safety’s specifications to operate a national, interoperable public safety broadband network.
If there is no winning bidder, then the license to the 30 MHz will revert to public safety, which could then use the spectrum for a national, interoperable public safety broadband network and work with the FCC to auction excess non-emergency capacity.

According to RCR Wireless:

In late January, McCain seemed to indicate he would push legislation that embraced Cyren Call’s approach. The McCain press release said at that time the national public-safety broadband network “would be created by licensing an additional 30 megahertz of radio spectrum in the upper 700 MHz band to a public-safety broadband trust.”
The nearest that the McCain bill comes to that arrangement would come about only by default. If there is no winning bid for the 30 megahertz, a reversionary license would be granted to a public-safety broadband trust. The McCain measure would cap the cost of a 30-megahertz license for a public-safety broadband trust at $5 billion.
Under current law, congressional budget experts predict the auction of all 60 megahertz being returned by TV broadcasters to raise up to $15 billion for the U.S. Treasury.

The new McCain bill more closely resembles the Frontline Wireless proposal, which itself more closely resembles the FCC’s own plan. Frontline wants the FCC to write rules to share up to 13 megahertz of commercial 700 MHz spectrum, adjacent to the 24 megahertz going to first responders.

According to Frontline’s vision (pdf FCC filing):

The Frontline Plan creates an essential spectrum reserve for public safety’s most critical communications. This nationwide “E” Block, combined with the 12 MHz of broadband public safety spectrum proposed by the Ninth NPRM, ensures a minimum of 22 MHz for public safety’s broadband network – all without disturbing or otherwise interfering with the existing 12 MHz allocation for narrowband voice communications. In sum, the public safety community will enjoy access to at least 34 MHz of spectrum in the “beachfront” Upper 700 MHz band.

Public-safety representatives did not hide their disappointment with the McCain bill. The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials said, in a statement;

“We strongly prefer legislation that grants a license for 30 megahertz in the 700 MHz band directly to a public-safety broadband trust, thus ensuring that public-safety needs were given first priority in the deployment of the spectrum. We continue to urge Congress to adopt the PSBT model. Nevertheless, we appreciate Sen. McCain’s efforts to open the debate, and look forward to working with him and others in Congress as we move forward to shape legislation to meet the critical need for public safety broadband communications capability.”

Cyren Call’s O’Brien asked: “Does anybody remember NextWave? That debacle illustrates what happens when commercial entities promise what they need to promise to win an auction, only to renege on that promise, while retaining the spectrum license. In this situation, such an event would be tragic for public safety and the nation.”

Meanwhile, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) worries that the DTV transition could be delayed past the Feb. 17, 2009, analog television shut-off date.

The chairman of the House Commerce Committee raised the issue in a speech which sharply criticized the Bush Administration’s DTV transition plan. Dingell noted several problems with the DTV transition, most notably the lack of details about the federal program to provide subsidized digital-to-analog converter boxes or any procedures associated with the distribution of the boxes via retail outlets. With the program mandated to start in 10 months, such uncertainty potentially will be problematic for politicians on Capitol Hill, he said.