T-Mobile, Motorola: arguments yea, nay regarding auctions
We’ve been talking about a nationwide public safety network for more than two decades. There have been pockets of progress. For example, gateway equipment from manufacturers such as Motorola has linked disparate responder groups across cities such as Minneapolis, San Diego and the Washington, D.C., metro area.
There are those who contend that the network doesn’t need to be nationwide. Others, though, believe we need common nationwide public safety spectrum for building a network “from scratch.”
National broadband: Where does the spectrum come from?
Among those in favor of a ground-up network, there are opposing views as to whether that spectrum should be auctioned. The Federal Communications Commission, in its national broadband plan, has set aside 10MHz in the 700MHz D Block for such a network. It has been slated for auction, a move that was already unsuccessful once in the 2008 700MHz auctions.
But there’s been recent talk of legislation that would turn over the spectrum to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), which was already awarded the license of a nearby 10MHz slice of spectrum in 2007.
Motorola thinks the other 10MHz spectrum should be handed over to the PSST. T-Mobile thinks it should be auctioned.
Rick Neal, vice president, government business development at Motorola, says the company’s position is to “allocate the additional 10MHz to [the PSST]. The other 10MHz should be put into block to create a 20MHz spectrum swath.”
Broadband will be a significant service for high-speed next-generation applications for public safety, such as real-time video and geo-spatial applications, Neal says. “10MHz [alone] won’t address those current and future requirements,” he says.
Kathleen Ham, vice president for federal regulatory affairs at T-Mobile USA, however, favors an auction. She implies that if a public safety organization such as the PSST owns the spectrum outright, the construction and maintenance of the network will be outsourced to a carrier anyway, which will cost a pretty penny.
“You will not see Sprint or T-Mobile in the band unless you auction the band,” Ham states. “Public safety will have to deal with a monopoly — Verizon or AT&T — to build the network, and they will pay a hefty price.
“If [PSST] ends up with 10MHz spectrum, I guarantee they’ll look at each other and say, ‘OK, now what do we do?'” she says.
