FCC Likely to Steam Forward on 4.9 GHz Despite Public Safety Concerns
Public safety officials are starting to build a case against FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal to rewrite the rules for the 4.9 GHz band, a long-standing focus of the FCC that's concerned it has never been fully utilized. Agency officials said it’s too early to tell whether any commissioner will object since meetings with public safety officials are getting underway. On a webinar Wednesday, Public Safety Spectrum Alliance supporters asked viewers to file comments and contact their congressional representatives before the Sept. 30 vote.
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“It is incredulous to me that the FCC commissioners and their chairman would move with lightning speed” to approve the item, said Richard Stanek, former sheriff of Hennepin County, Minnesota. States would decide how the spectrum is assigned “with no guarantee of additional public safety usage,” he said. The move backtracks from commitments the FCC made in 2002 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he said.
The 4.9 GHz order is a “simple issue” for public safety, said Jeff Johnson, CEO of the Western Fire Chiefs Association. “We’re in the middle of a pandemic, we’re in the middle of civil unrest, we have 3 million acres on fire in three states in the West,” Johnson said.
“The ad-hoc sharing regime currently in the 4.9 GHz band has failed public safety with this prime mid-band spectrum being severely underused, only 3.5% of potential licensees are even using the spectrum, more than a decade after it was allocated,” an FCC spokesperson emailed. “The proposal on the agenda would empower states to put the spectrum to its highest and best use, including for public safety, allowing new partnerships with electric utilities, FirstNet, and commercial operators to increase the usage of this spectrum for all Americans.”
The FCC would permit one statewide 4.9 GHz band licensee per state “to lease some or all of its spectrum rights to third parties, including commercial, critical infrastructure, and other users, thus making up to 50 megahertz of mid-band spectrum available for more intensive use.” The band would no longer have to be used for public safety (see 2009090048). A Further NPRM proposes new licensing rules, grandfathering current public safety licensees and implementing the new approach.
“Public safety professionals have a lot on their minds and plenty to prepare for,” said Martha Ellis, executive director of the Public Safety Broadband Technology Association and a former fire marshal. “Worrying about the expanding needs for broadband access shouldn’t be a point for concern.”
A PSSA petition asks the band instead be allocated to FirstNet. “Public safety requires a dedicated radio and broadband spectrum to perform our duties in protecting the public,” the petition says: “We depend on this spectrum for our radio systems and for our broadband data network needs.”
The Government Wireless Technology & Communications Association, citing a flood of questions, posted an update. “By assigning responsibility for spectrum use and management to States under a lease or spectrum manager format, the FCC has taken a step toward utilizing the spectrum management tools traditionally used for private spectrum to the public safety space,” the group said. “The ability to intermix a variety of public safety, non-public safety, wideband, and narrowband operations controlled by a band manager or through leases will no doubt be unfamiliar to many public safety entities.”