Senate Commerce Committee leaders urged FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to...
Senate Commerce Committee leaders urged FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to assess communications infrastructure to ensure it’s ready for emergencies. “We must not allow any more potentially life threatening disasters to occur before our nation’s first responders get the interoperable public…
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safety communications system they need to keep us safe,” Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said in a letter Friday. “And, as the communications troubles following the earthquake reminded us, we cannot require public safety to rely exclusively on commercial networks for their mission-critical, advanced wireless communications needs.” Wireless congestion after last week’s earthquake showed why Congress must pass the senators’ spectrum bill, S-911, Rockefeller and Hutchison said. The bill would reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety and authorize voluntary incentive auctions. “Many first responders were forced to rely on their voice-only land mobile radios because commercial networks are not reliable for mission-critical services during emergencies,” Rockefeller and Hutchison said. “Unfortunately, until we can provide public safety with the spectrum and funding they need to build a dedicated nationwide interoperable wireless broadband network, our first responders and the Americans who depend on them will be at the mercy of increasingly congested networks for their advanced wireless communications needs."