Two Sheriffs Groups Ask FCC to Stay 4.9 GHz Order
The National Sheriffs’ Association and the California State Sheriffs’ Association asked that the FCC stay an October order giving the FirstNet Authority -- and, indirectly, AT&T -- use of the 4.9 GHz band (see 2410220027) pending judicial review of the…
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order. The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure challenged the order, while the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance questioned aspects of it, in petitions for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2412040043). The sheriffs groups said plaintiffs will likely prevail in court. “The Order is arbitrary and capricious because its last minute decision to block public safety entities from modifying existing licenses and applying for new licenses was not the subject of adequate notice,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 07-100. In addition, the order is “self-contradictory and not based on sound reasoning,” the groups said. It "claims that incumbent licensees will not be adversely affected, when they will immediately be stripped of their geographic license rights and ability to apply for new or modified licenses as needed.” The order also unfairly helps AT&T “better position itself vis-à-vis its commercial wireless service competitors” by giving it “access to free mid-band spectrum in order to ‘maintain parity’ with its competitors, which is not an appropriate use of the 4.9 GHz public safety spectrum.”