FCC Waivers and Funding Could Fuel Nationwide Public Safety Network

The Federal Communications Commission took a significant step toward building a nationwide public safety network last week by clearing the way for 21 cities, counties and states to begin building their own fourth-generation wireless networks.

The FCC gave conditional approval on May 12 to waiver requests from New Jersey, Los Angeles County, Boston and 18 others to start creating 4G networks known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. These networks could begin to form a nationwide interoperable wireless network that has been sought by public safety officials since Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The LTE networks approved last week will use 10 MHz of spectrum that public safety was granted in 1997. But the FCC required that the new networks be compatible with the proposed national D Block 700 MHz network. "I think it is going to have a very profound effect upon our ability to get a nationwide network because if we can get some of these early build-out cities or regions or states done, we'll get some early lessons and learn what works and what doesn't," said Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit designated by the FCC to guide construction of the national wireless network for first responders.