APCO Issues Alert For D Block Auction Bill

One week after legislation was introduced in the U.S. House to cancel a previously-required auction of D Block 700 MHz spectrum and directly assign it to public safety, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) has issused an “Alert” to members asking them to contact members of the House asking them to support the bill. The bill could end two years of intense debate and political lobbying over the 10 MHz of spectrum, which Congress ordered be sold to the highest bidder in 2005, along with several other slices of spectrum. However, the Jan.–March 2008 auction resulted in just one bidder who didn’t meet the minimum bid. Since then the FCC has been pondering how to move forward, and a wide range of public safety, wireless and other groups and companies have lobbied the Commission and Congress on the best course of action. Then last month the FCC released a landmark plan to advance the country’s broadband infrastructure, and in that proposed a re-auction of the D Block, which re-ignited debate over the spectrum. In the lastest action, U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) introduced H.R. 5081, which would amend existing law, effectively canceling the auction that Congress originally ordered, and giving two 5 MHz allocations to a single public safety licensee. The law also sets out certain interoperability requirements for the network. Conspicuously, the bill does not include the word “funding” or any reference to who would pay for a nationwide wireless network. Download (pdf) the text of the bill, which has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.In its e-mail alert to members, “APCO…implores you to CALL, EMAIL, and WRITE to your U.S. House Representative today to strongly urge him/her to cosponsor H.R. 5081.” The message also asked members to write their U.S. Senators and President Obama about the bill.

APCO call the bill “bipartisan” and explained that it would require the FCC to allocate the 10 MHz to public safety, “for the creation of a national public safety interoperable mobile broadband network.”

Links in the e-mail lead to an APCO Web page with a further explanation of the bill, and that the bill “is a top legislative priority for APCO and the entire public safety and state and local government community.”

APCO said it was joined in its efforts to support the bill by a long list of other organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA).