FCC Faces Big Job on Launch of First Responder Network, Barnett Says
The FCC Public Safety Bureau is working hard to wrap up a decision on the various longstanding applications from Oklahoma, New Orleans and other jurisdictions for waivers so they can build out early networks in the 700 MHz band, Chief Jamie Burnett said Wednesday. But Barnett, who spoke at a National Emergency Number Association conference, declined to provide a timetable for when the FCC will make a decision.
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"We're getting a lot of calls saying, ‘What’s going on? What’s going on?'” Barnett conceded following his speech to NENA. Recently enacted spectrum legislation provides funding for a national first responder network. By some accounts, the FCC put off action on the waiver applications to focus on getting the spectrum bill through Congress (CD Feb 13 p1). The bureau is now reviewing the waiver applications with an eye on the deployment of that national network, he said. More than 30 waiver applications are pending before the bureau (CD Sept 15 p1).
"The statute requires that we work on transition,” Barnett said. “Part of that transition to me is not only the ones that have already been granted but people who have also asked for one and not been granted yet. I realize that there are a lot of people who are kind of on tenterhooks on that, so we're working as quickly as we can."
The bureau has a big job ahead of it as a result of the spectrum legislation, Barnett said. “The mood is very upbeat, a lot of furious work,” he said. “We've been thinking about this for two years. We've been working on interoperability. … We're talking a lot to NTIA. We'd like for there to be a nice, seamless transition."
Barnett was asked about disagreements within the Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) over a report by the group last year on emergency communications for people with disabilities. Industry members of the EAAC filed an addendum to the report questioning many of the key findings (CD Dec 27 p4). “I don’t know that it makes it harder,” Barnett said. “It’s just part of the job.” The EAAC is scheduled to meet at the FCC Friday, for the second session since the release of the contested report.
"We are going to continue to work and focus on this,” Barnett added. “EAAC continues to work. I think that next generation 911 offers some tremendous potential. I don’t know that anyone disagrees on that. What’s the best way to capitalize on that is the major question and we're going to continue to work on it.” The future of 911 is one of Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “major focuses and the disability aspects of that is a key,” Barnett said.
Barnett said he hopes to have work on 911 location accuracy and text-to-911 orders wrapped up by the end of the summer. But “things happen and we'll just have to see,” he said.
Questions remain about whether the FCC should push through the use of short message service (SMS) texts to 911 as an interim solution, prior to a permanent solution allowing people to send emergency texts to 911 call centers, Barnett said. CTIA and several wireless carriers last month complained that SMS won’t work even as a short-term fix (CD Feb 13 p8). “If you go down the SMS-text road are you making investments that really aren’t going to go anywhere?” Barnett asked. “On the other hand, if you are going to do next-generation 911 long term … it may be a while. Is there a way to blend that?” The question “is the cost benefit analysis,” he said.
Barnett told the NENA lunch that funding is “the elephant in the room,” for the build out of a national network for first responders. “Quite frankly, there’s not a next generation [network] unless you can pay for it,” he said.