FCC January agenda includes public safety item

The Federal Communications Commission late Tuesday released its tentative agenda for its January public meeting and included a proposed rule to ensure a public safety broadband network is interoperable nationwide.

The proposed order and notice of "further" proposed rulemaking is the only major item on the FCC's agenda for its January 25th meeting. An FCC official, however, said last month that the agency also could decide to vote on approving Comcast's merger with NBC Universal at the January meeting as well if commissioners have finished weighing Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposed order. Just before Christmas, Genachowski began circulating a draft order calling for approving the Comcast-NBCU merger with some conditions.

Ensuring the interoperability of first responder communications has been a key goal of policy makers since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when New York City first responders had trouble communicating with each other.

In its national broadband plan released last year, the FCC found that even nearly a decade after the attacks many public safety radio systems lack basic interoperability. Despite some improvements most jurisdictions "still only have an 'intermediate' level of interoperability at best -- not the advanced level of interoperability that is required for truly seamless communications in the event of a major emergency," according to the broadband plan.

The plan recommended the FCC create an "Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC) to ensure that these applications, devices and networks all work together, so that first responders nationwide can communicate with one another seamlessly."