Public Safety Fighting FCC 4.9 GHz Order, Sees Split FCC as a Challenge
Public safety officials hope the FCC will reverse course on the 4.9 GHz band, reallocated to the states in September (see 2009300050), they told a Public Safety Spectrum Alliance webinar Thursday. Speakers endorsed petitions by PSSA and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council asking the FCC to reverse the change. Democrats Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented, but experts said the outlook is uncertain due to the split 2-2 commission. FCC officials told us the order is one of a large number that will have to be addressed under new leadership.
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The order is “bad policy” and suffered from procedural flaws, said Chris Moore, retired police chief from San Jose. “It was a rushed order,” he said, and public safety filed comments that were never considered. “No states asked for it,” he said: “It came out of thin air.” The 2-2 FCC “could cause us some difficulty,” he said. “We are now trying to get them to act affirmatively to reconsider this, and that may be difficult,” he said. Like the other speakers, Moore remains active in national public safety groups.
The new FCC chair could choose not to implement the order by refusing to put out the further rules that states need to move forward, Moore said. Both FCC Democrats' dissents cited “deficiencies” in the order, he said.
“Public safety needs spectrum to operate,” but the band, allocated for that purpose in 2002, became critical only as agencies needed airwaves for 5G, said Western Fire Chiefs Association CEO Jeff Johnson. “We’re going backwards.” The commission gave the band “back to the states with no rules, no standards,” he said. “We’re not oblivious to the fact that industry wants this and that there’s people who have figured out how to make a buck on it.”
The Capitol insurrection showed that public safety still has a need for “seamless communications,” said Richard Stanek, former sheriff and commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. “We know what the value is of public safety spectrum,” he said: “Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
The FCC made the band available after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said Charles Dowd, former assistant chief of the New York Police Department. “Entities like the FCC can become forgetful about [public safety’s] needs,” he said: “We cannot become complacent about this. We have to stay proactive.” Giving states control would be “an absolute mess” and “completely unworkable,” he said.
The FCC “caught us flat-footed,” Moore said. “We’re going to fight, and we hope that you join us,” he said. “When we step in and we act in a determined fashion … we will win,” Dowd said.