In February, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-NY) and Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-MS) introduced H.R. 607, the “Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011”. Congressman King was the first to introduce legislation on behalf of public safety last year, and we at APCO International are greatly indebted to him for his leadership on public safety broadband. H.R. 607 allocates the D Block spectrum to public safety and provides funding to build out a nationwide broadband network. The members of the Public Safety Alliance (PSA), which is run as a program of APCO International, are united in their support for the bill. However, we are concerned about Section 207, which requires public safety agencies that use spectrum between 450-512 MHz to migrate their Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems to the 700/800 MHz spectrum bands. The intent of this section is to expedite the migration of public safety systems to reduce costs, improve interoperability, and increase efficiency by leveraging the build out of 700 MHz broadband networks. Furthermore, its intent is consistent with the process currently overseen by the Regional Planning Councils (RPCs) in working with agencies migrating to 700/800 MHz from VHF/UHF systems.

Congress had already accounted for the revenue it calculated to be received from auctioning the D block at $1.5-to-$3.2 billion, so any effort to allocate D block must create an offset to retain an equal estimated amount of revenue for the U.S. Treasury. Indeed, the Obama Administration created its offset in announcing its support for D block allocation by providing $3.2 billion to fill the auction gap. H.R. 607 proposes that the clearing and auctioning of public safety spectrum below 512 MHz provide for the legislative offset required of any new House bill.

APCO International sees merit to the migration of LMR systems to the 700/800 MHz band only if it would increase efficiency, improve interoperability and reduce cost for the agencies. Also, existing LMR systems should migrate only if there is a viable plan that demonstrates sufficient spectrum in the 700/800 MHz band to meet the needs of the public safety agency and only if the migration is funded. No agency should be forced to migrate its systems if it will result in an unfunded mandate on the agency or negatively impact current operations. Agencies that migrate their systems to 700/800 MHz should release their licenses in the lower bands as currently required of the existing RPC process. APCO International’s leadership is working closely with the bill sponsors to amend Section 207, who have indicated a willingness to address concerns raised by public safety and its partners, including those raised by amateur radio and alarm industry operators.

Neither S. 28, as sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John “Jay” Rockefeller, IV (D-WV), nor the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget proposal include a spectrum “give-back” provision. These are our preferred options for gaining D block allocation and funding while meeting the offset requirements. While the two legislative chambers and the Administration could ultimately compromise on the issue of offsets, we do not believe they are likely to support current give-back language. Every effort is being undertaken to minimize the potential impact of any resulting provisions. Since the current language does impact two of our longtime partners, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA), we are working closely with them on this issue. Be assured that we are far from the endgame on this and the House bill sponsors share our priority for maintaining current and future spectrum needs, both for broadband and LMR.

For more information, please check out the PSA website.

Sincerely,

APCO Executive Committee of the Board
Bill Carrow, President
Gregg Riddle, First Vice President
Terry Hall, Second Vice President
Dick Mirgon, Immediate Past President
George Rice, Executive Director