By next year public safety agencies 10 counties surrounding San Francisco and San Jose will be connected by a 700 MHz LTE radio network, built using D Block spectrum that is otherwise tied up by legal and legislative restrictions. Yesterday Motorola announced it has signed a contract to build the radio network that will overlay on existing system, covering 7,200 square-miles and over 100 cities and towns. The value of the contract wasn’t announced. The IP-based, Project 25-compliant radio network will use 700 MHz frequencies in a 10 MHz block that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had originally assigned to a public safety trust for a nationwide broadband network. Last year the FCC granted waivers to 20 agencies and groups to build systems, including the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System (BayRICS) who just signed the contract with. It’s generally believed that Motorola is cooperating with BayRICS to build the system as a way of demonstrating LTE technology and to gain a foothold in the market for future D Block network construction. Read the Motorola press release here.
2 comments… add one
This article implies that this system will be built on the D block spectrum. That is absolutely wrong. Public safety has NO current accessibility to the D block spectrum. The Public Safety Spectrum Trust DOES have a license for the public safety broadband spectrum which is NOT the same as the D block spectrum. That is the spectrum the FCC has issued waivers for systems to be constructed on and the ONLY spectrum the Bay Area system can be built on.
It’s amazing how much misinformation there is floating around about the public safety broadband spectrum. Unfortunately, this article adds to that misinformation.
Again, the D block spectrum is entirely separate from the currently allocated public safety broadband spectrum. It is possible that the D block might be assigned to public safety, but not a done deal by any means. Meanwhile, the ONLY spectrum public safety systems can be built on is the public safety broadband spectrum currently licensed to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust.
Editor — Thanks for the clarification of the spectrum involved in this deal. As you note, the D Block isn’t yet open for use. I’ve edited the story to reduce the confusion.
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