US planning 700 MHz emergency services national wireless broadband network.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is seeking comment (Word | PDF) on their planned "Implementation of a Nationwide, Broadband, Interoperable Public Safety Network in the 700MHz Band".
The 700MHz band is particularly useful as it travels over long distances and can easily penetrate walls and buildings. The US currently allocates twenty-four megahertz of public safety spectrum in the 700 MHz band. The FCC's proposal allocates 12 mehahertz of this block to accommodate broadband communications with the following public safety objectives:
- opportunities for broadband, national, interoperable use of 700 MHz spectrum;
- new sources of funding for the build-out and operation of the national public safety network;
- economies of scale and scope in production and competition in supply to maximize cost effectiveness;
- efficient spectrum use;
- network robustness and survivability; and
- flexible, modern IP-based wireless system architecture.
and more specifically that the FCC:
- allocate 12 megahertz of the 700 MHz public safety spectrum from wideband to broadband use;
- assign this spectrum nationwide to a single national public safety broadband licensee;
- permit the national public safety broadband licensee also to operate on a secondary basis on the narrowband public safety spectrum in the 700 MHz band;
- permit the licensee to use its assigned spectrum to provide public safety entities with voluntary access to a public safety broadband service on a fee-for-service basis;
- permit the licensee to provide unconditionally preemptible access to its assigned spectrum to commercial service providers on a secondary basis, through leases or in the form of public/private partnerships;
- facilitate the shared use of CMRS infrastructure for the efficient provision of public safety broadband service; and
- establish performance requirements for interoperability, build-out, preemption of commercial access, and system robustness.