FCC Public Notice Seen as Positive Step by 700 MHz Waiver Recipients
Two public safety officials central to the push by 21 different government groups to build early first-responded networks in the 700 MHz band told us they welcome Friday’s public notice by the FCC Public Safety Bureau asking a battery of questions about 700 MHz transition issues in light of the recently enacted Spectrum Act (CD April 9 p9). With the original licenses due to expire in late summer, Public Safety Spectrum Trust Operator Advisory Committee Chairman Bill Schrier and PSST Chairman Harlin McEwen said Monday the public notice was a necessary next step by the commission.
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"The waiver recipients are concerned about the expiration of their leases,” said Schrier, also chief technology officer for Seattle. “Our leases expire in August or September and the licenses are with the PSST, which presently holds the license for this spectrum. We welcome this public notice. It gives us a chance to give input to the FCC about how to transfer the license and the leases.”
Under the Spectrum Act, the FCC must transfer the licenses from the PSST to the new FirstNet Authority. The FirstNet Board, to be appointed by the NTIA, doesn’t have to be in place until Aug. 20 under the Spectrum Act, and that has caused uncertainty for waiver recipients. “The FirstNet board might not even be appointed and active by the time that the leases with the PSST expire,” Schrier said: “We welcome the chance to actually give some input on this. We are concerned. We'd like our authority to build in this spectrum to be continued. That’s especially true for nine or 10 of the recipients who have actually started to construct networks or who are actually in the process of issuing” requests for proposals.
"I think it is timely and I think they are asking the right questions,” McEwen said of the FCC, in a separate interview. “There’s a variety of ways to respond. … It should gather some comments that would be helpful in making some decisions.”
Schrier and McEwen said the public notice doesn’t have implications for the various waiver applications on which the FCC has failed to act. Louisiana and Oklahoma have been especially active in pressuring the agency to address their respective applications (CD April 3 p3). “That’s an entirely separate matter,” Schrier said. “The way I read this notice is it only concerns the waivers they've granted so far and the leases that the present waiver recipients have with the FCC."
Seven of the 21 waiver recipients got Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grants to build out networks and so have funding in place. Others, like Texas, have money through other grant programs to build out an early network. By most accounts, Charlotte, N.C., Texas and Adams County, Miss., are the furthest along. Other waiver recipients “haven’t done anything,” one official said. “These are not all equal.”