The FCC’s 700 MHz plan adopted yesterday embraces, for the most part, Frontline Wireless’s plan for a national public safety network. It’s really an amazing thing considering that nine months ago Frontline Wireless didn’t exist (at least not in public), while Cyren Call had been making noise for months. As I’ve said before, I’m not crazy about Frontline’s plan, but I like it better than Cyren Call’s ill-fated proposal. That said, here are the pros and cons of the new rules ad I see them (and without the benefit of the actual rules in front of me because the FCC apparently hasn’t heard of this publishing technology called the World Wide Web).
Under the plus column is the FCC’s decision to offer a national license for public safety communications. In my study last year of first responder communications, I concluded that the root cause of the interoperability problem is the current system of assigning spectrum licenses to individual public safety agencies and jurisdictions. That practice balkanizes the spectrum and creates a collective action problem. The solution, I suggested, was to auction national licenses for public safety spectrum to commercial carriers who could then offer completely interoperable subscription services to first responders.
In its plan the FCC not only recognizes the need for a national network, but also makes a radical break with the past by accepting that a private commercial carrier can provide a public safety network and that such a network can be shared with commercial users. Even if imperfect, the FCC’s decision at least offers hope that the interoperability problem can finally be overcome–something impossible as long as it continued to dole out public safety spectrum piecemeal.
So what’s not to like? First, this decision imposes its public safety mandate on 10 MHz of spectrum that would otherwise have been available at auction for flexible use. That is, this is more new spectrum for public safety at the expense of new unencumbered spectrum for commercial use. I understand that this will be a shared network, but the FCC could have been really bold and implemented this same plan on the 24 MHz of spectrum already slated by Congress for public safety. As Commissioner McDowell states in his statement (PDF), “With today’s action, public safety will have about 107 megahertz of spectrum at its disposal. So it appears to me that ongoing efforts should more closely focus on attaining the quickest and most efficient use of this spectrum.” That is, you don’t need any more spectrum, you need to use what you have more efficiently. To be a bit optimistic, if the national public safety network is a success, we can hope that existing public safety spectrum now being used inefficiently will be reclaimed and auctioned off for more efficient uses, including commercial uses and new shared public safety networks.
And that brings me to another downer. I’ve warned before that while the FCC’s plan creates a single licensee that will face no direct competition to its public safety network. This is problematic for several reasons, and it’s potentially a self-perpetuating situation. Some day we may free up more TV or public safety spectrum and want to license a second (and hopefully third and forth) national interoperable public safety-commercial network. Who do you think will be leading the charge against such a move (in the name of the public interest, of course)?
Finally, the FCC’s plan creates a national license on 12 of the 24 MHz of spectrum set aside for public safety. But who exactly will be the licensee? I don’t have the final rules, but word is that it will be a politically appointed committee representing public safety. I don’t care for committees myself for many reasons and the need for one could have been avoided if two or more commercial entities had been licensed spectrum in existing public safety allocations (which means they would be subject to public safety mandates).
One last item that I don’t know yet whether to put in the plus or minus column. Frontline’s plan called for the ultimate network to be subject to open access obligations, including a wholesale mandate. I can’t tell from the FCC’s press release if that was adopted or not, but I imagine that its absences means it wasn’t. If it was, maybe Google will bid on this spectrum.
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