RUS to Fund Public Safety Broadband Under Telecom Loan Program

The announcement came as Congress considers legislation by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and others that would pay the costs of building a national wireless broadband network and a few days before the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks (See related article, this issue).

"The administration needs to move now to get public safety the help it needs,” Adelstein said. “We're putting in place the authority to offer lending for all of these upgrades for public safety agencies. … We're hopeful that the Rockefeller bill will be enacted. The new lending authority that we have would provide financing that could help building the nationwide 4G emergency communications network."

Many local governments need the low-interest loans RUS can make available, especially during tough economic times, Adelstein said. “It can be tough to do bonding now,” he said. “A lot of these municipalities are kind of strapped. If they want to pay for this over a long period of a time we provide low cost financing for very long terms.” RUS is already providing loans for the buildout of other wireless broadband networks. “This specifically allows us to assist public safety agencies and municipalities in building an emergency communications network,” Adelstein said.

Adelstein said the program will be broader than just helping the local governments that got FCC waivers to build out early systems in the 700 MHz band, but did not get broadband stimulus funds from the NTIA. Of the 22 waiver recipients, only seven received funding under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. “In rural areas, they can be pretty short on the capital they need to make these investments,” Adelstein said. “They're not going to find any more attractive [loan] terms than RUS.” This is a good time for municipalities to build public safety networks, given the number of people looking for work and low interest rates, he said: “The time to fix the roof on the barn is when the sun is shining.”

Adelstein said the Sept. 11 attacks, 14 months before he was confirmed as a member of the FCC, remain vivid in his memory. He was on his way to work at the Senate that morning when he saw smoke rising from the Pentagon, where his brother was working. “It was very close to home, and then I got thraxed,” he said. Adelstein was at work in the office of his former boss Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., in October 2001, when someone opened an envelope containing anthrax spores, which floated around the room. Several staffers to the former Senate majority leader were exposed. “I've been a victim of a bio-terror attack myself and we need to be sure we're ready for this kind of thing,” Adelstein said. “In rural areas people need the help urgently."

"Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, significant Congressional attention was placed on weaknesses in the nation’s emergency communications capabilities,” the notice says. “The ability of rural communities, carriers and emergency responders to keep up with changing communications technologies was and continues to be a concern of emergency response professionals. Interoperability, which is the ability of emergency responders from various agencies and jurisdictions to communicate with each other, is also a pressing national need."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the change in regulations will help rural communities build out advanced emergency communications. “As we mark the 10th anniversary of an event that cost thousands of American lives, we continue to work to ensure the safety of our rural communities,” Vilsack said. “Our telecommunications networks should work best when they are needed the most, and that is in times of emergencies. This change provides rural first responders with the tools they need to maintain mission-critical voice and broadband service during times of emergency or during natural disasters.”