Senator, first responders lay claim to open spectrum

If public safety agencies do not receive more spectrum or a system is not in development by September 2011, 10 years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, it would be a "sheer national embarrassment," a ranking senator said at a hearing on Thursday.

Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said the United States should have a nationwide, interoperable wireless broadband communications system. "We're crazy if we don't do it," he added.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker echoed his comments during her testimony. "It is unconscionable that nine years after Sept. 11 and five years after Hurricane Katrina we still do not have a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network," said Parker, who is chairwoman of criminal and social justice committee at the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Public safety officials argued they need an additional 10 megahertz of spectrum that is available next to space they currently use so they can communicate without multiple devices. The space is referred to as D-Block, and the Federal Communications Commission has recommended the 10 MHz portion be auctioned off.

In the past, parts of the spectrum have been given to public safety agencies piecemeal. As a result, during an emergency such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack they have almost no chance of communicating because they are operating on different frequencies.

Stephen McClure, director of emergency medical services in Jackson County, W.Va., said when paramedics are 20 miles from the county's trauma center, they cannot communicate with anyone. Referring to the Apollo moon landing in 1969, he said if someone could communicate from almost 290,000 miles away 40 years ago, "why can't we communicate with someone 20 miles away?"

Public safety officials said a plan to sell the spectrum but have it available for public safety use during emergencies is not feasible. "[That] simply will not work for public safety," said Robert Davis, the police chief in San Jose, Calif. "A dropped call on a cell phone is an annoyance. In an emergency it literally can mean the difference between life and death."

McClure added, "I think public safety needs to control this and police themselves on this."

But public safety agencies cannot concede to commercial providers the decision of what is or is not an emergency, said Jeff Johnson, chief executive of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and former president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

He said assigning spectrum must occur now, because "if we come up short, we are going to continue to add spectrum and wind up with multiple devices, as we have today."

"If we don't take action now, we will still be using Band-Aids to heal up the surgical wounds," Russell Laine, police chief in Algonquin, Ill. and past president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said at a news conference after the hearing, "