FCC chairman: Congress should pay for public safety network

The FCC plan would also require carriers to share 700MHz spectrum with public safety agencies

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will ask Congress for $12 billion to $16 billion to pay for building and maintaining a nationwide mobile broadband network for emergency response agencies, including police and fire departments.

U.S. broadband adoption sees significant spike

The FCC will also recommend, in a national broadband plan due to be released next month, that mobile carriers that paid billions of dollars for spectrum in the 700MHz band be required to share their spectrum with public safety agencies, agency Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will ask Congress for $12 billion to $16 billion to pay for building and maintaining a nationwide mobile broadband network for emergency response agencies, including police and fire departments.

U.S. broadband adoption sees significant spike

The FCC will also recommend, in a national broadband plan due to be released next month, that mobile carriers that paid billions of dollars for spectrum in the 700MHz band be required to share their spectrum with public safety agencies, agency Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday.

A grant program of up to $16 billion over 10 years is needed to get a nationwide, interoperable public safety network built, Genachowski said in a press briefing. Public safety officials and U.S. lawmakers have been calling for a nationwide mobile broadband network since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, during which the multiple public safety agencies responding to the attacks couldn't talk to each other.

"This is important," Genachowski said. "We have gone too long with little progress to show for it. The private sector simply is not going to build a nationwide, state-of-the-art, interoperable broadband network for public safety on its own dime."

Asked if Congress might balk at spending $16 billion or more on a public safety network, Genachowski said the network is necessary. The FCC's plan represents the "best and shortest path" to needed emergency communications for public safety agencies, he said.

After a protracted battle, Congress, in late 2005, passed legislation requiring U.S. TV stations to move to all-digital broadcasts and abandon analog spectrum between channels 52 and 69. Much of the cleared spectrum, in the 700MHz band, was sold in auctions that ended in March 2008, and many spectrum experts say the spectrum is optimal for wireless broadband services.

But a block of spectrum that the FCC tried to sell for a shared commercial/public safety service failed to sell, and the FCC has not attempted to re-auction that D block of spectrum since then.

The costs of the nationwide mobile broadband network would include $6 billion, over 10 years, for a grant program to support the costs of building out the network, the FCC said. Another $6 billion to $10 billion would support the operation and upgrading of the network over 10 years, under the FCC plan.

Genachowski originally announced that the plan would cost $16 billion to $18 billion, but the FCC downgraded the cost estimates later Thursday.

The FCC's national broadband plan will recommend that the D block be resold, but that public safety agencies would also have access to about 80MHz of spectrum sold to carriers including Verizon Communications and AT&T. Public safety agencies would have priority access on that spectrum under the FCC's plan.

With access to other spectrum, public safety agencies would have access to a redundant and reliable network, Genachowski said.

CTIA, a trade group representing mobile carriers, didn't have a reaction to the proposal. AT&T looks forward to seeing more details when the national broadband plan comes out, a spokeswoman said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.