APCO Releases D Block Needs Assessment

The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) has released a report it funded to assess public safety needs in the D Block of 700 MHz spectrum. Not surprisingly, the nine-pages of analysis concluded what APCO has been advocating for two years: the D Block should be assigned to public safety as a single block to create a national wireless network. The assessment builds upon the association’s on-going lobbying efforts to snag a 700 MHz allocation, including a member letter-writing campaign to Washington politicians. The report’s author is Dr. Alan Shark, executive director of Public Technology Institute (PTI), a Washington (DC)-based association created by cities and counties as an advocate and resource for technology in government. In the report, Shark concluded that, “Public-safety-grade service demands special requirements that simply cannot be found in commercial systems,” and listed six factors why commercial systems are “inadequate.” He said his assessment, “demonstrates rather conclusively that the 700 MHz D-Block and Public Safety Broadband License (PSBL) should be combined as a complete block, because of the mission-critical requirements and applications that have been highlighted.” Download (pdf) the assessment here.