Groups Launch Political Action on Spectrum

Officials of APCO and NENA joined a wide range of national public safety, law enforcement and firefighting organizations at a Washington (DC) press conference on Tuesday, asking Congress and the Obama administration to withdraw the 700 MHz D Block of spectrum from any future auction, and directly assign it to public safety. San Jose (Calif.) police chief Robert Davis told reporters that public safety leaders had met with members of Congress in the morning to bring home their point—eight years after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, there isn’t enough spectrum to enable radio interoperability among agencies, both voice and data. “It’s been eight years, and we still can’t communicate with each other,” Davis said. Congress originally required a portion of the 700 MHz band be auctioned to raise revenue, and a public safety trust be created to create and operate a system. However, the Feb. 2008 auction failed to meet a minimum bid requirement, and the FCC has been considering what action to take ever since. Watch a video of the press conference here. APCO has posted talking points about the political action, and some background.