Eshoo, House Democrats Ready Amendment to Reallocate D-Block

The Communications Subcommittee is nearly “ready” to move to a spectrum markup, Eshoo said. No date is set because negotiations aren’t done, but there are not many legislative days left and the markup should happen soon, Eshoo said. Democrats and Republicans “made a lot of headway” in their spectrum talks and have most of the bill’s details “ironed out,” she said. But the parties have “agreed to disagree” on whether to auction or reallocate the D-block, Eshoo said. Democrats and Republicans agree there should be a nationwide, interoperable network for public safety, but Republicans still would rather auction the D-block to commercial carriers, Eshoo said. “I don’t think this is going to be resolved in our discussions leading up to markup, and that’s OK,” she said. Democrats will likely offer an amendment in the markup and again on the House floor, she said.

Eshoo said the House must proceed through regular order on spectrum legislation, even though the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is also looking at spectrum, she said. The White House, the FCC and the Senate have taken positions, and it’s time for the House to do so as well, she said. “There’s more to this legislation than just” auctions and the revenue coming from that, she said.

Eshoo cited “a recognition” in the subcommittee that the spectrum bill offers an opportunity to pass 911 legislation. “But it’s not just a matter of getting something folded in” to the spectrum bill on NG911, she said. “I want it to be robust.” Eshoo heard on Friday’s tour that “there are not the resources or the plan for the next generation of technology,” she said. “And that’s where we come in.” But she acknowledged it’s tough to authorize any new funding given the nation’s current economic woes. Shimkus and Eshoo’s bill would provide $250 million for implementation grants to state and local governments over five years.

One of the Washington call center’s top officials supported reallocation of the D-block to public safety. Commercial carriers have “limited bandwidth” and their infrastructure isn’t built for public safety needs, said Teddy Kavaleri, the Office’s chief information officer. After the recent earthquake, “nobody could make a call” because the commercial network couldn’t support the spike in traffic, he said. Kavaleri told a Democratic House Commerce Committee aide during the tour that controlling the D-block would ensure public safety can send large amounts of data without degradation or other problems.

The Washington call center was not overloaded with calls during the earthquake, said Stephen Williams, the Office’s IT systems manager. “We did have a lot of calls in the queue, but we were able to process them through.” But because the commercial wireless networks went down, many people couldn’t make a call to get into the queue, he said.

Kavaleri said 911 centers need funding for new technology allowing them to accept text messages, images, video and other data. The next-generation technology and standards are nearly ready, but “local jurisdictions need to understand this is coming … and the bigger challenge is funding.” Kavaleri estimated it would cost $2 million to $4 million to transition Washington to upgrade its infrastructure and train workers to use it. Kavaleri said that 65-67 percent of calls to 911 are from wireless devices. But people who text-message 911 may not even receive a bounce-back message saying the message could not go through, he said.

Enabling 911 callers to send data would be of enormous help to public safety answering points, said Gregory Rohde, executive director of the E-911 Institute. “The biggest part of the challenge here is getting better information” from the 911 caller, he said. “A picture can speak a thousand words.” Deaf and hard-of-hearing users primarily use text messages, noted National Emergency Number Association President Brian Fontes. The legacy TTY service, accepted by 911 call centers, is on the way out, he said.

Shimkus left the event early to manage a bill on the House floor and didn’t take questions. “While many rural communities in my district and around the country cannot yet pinpoint the location of 9-1-1 calls from cell phones, emerging technologies offer great potential for emergency agencies,” he said afterward in a written statement. “Through the competitive grants created by our bipartisan legislation, the future can include not only location services, but text messaging, picture messaging and even video sent straight to dispatchers to aid in response.”