Call to Action: Congress Needs To Reallocate Spectrum for Public Safety Wireless Broadband
APCO President Dick Mirgon and Executive Committee Members came to Washington, DC on January 12 as part of a unified group of major national public safety associations to urge Congress and the Obama Administration to reallocate the 700 MHz D Block spectrum to public safety for broadband. President Mirgon requests that all APCO Members contact their congressional delegation, both US Senators and US Representatives, to strongly support our nation's first responders by providing the critical additional spectrum for priority broadband use. Be sure to ask for the legislative staff that works on telecommunications issues.

In the absence of swift Congressional action to remove the D Block from auction, the FCC must, under current law, "expeditiously" re-auction this critical spectrum. This would effectively forever preclude public safety's ability to obtain 20 MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 700 MHz band.

Specifically, we request that Congress pass legislation directing the FCC to remove any auction requirements for the D Block and to allocate it directly to public safety as part of the nationwide Public Safety Broadband License (PSBL). This will result in public safety having access to 20 MHz of broadband spectrum that is essential to meet public safety's expanding requirements and to maximize efficient use of broadband technologies. We request that Congress and the FCC work with public safety to identify dedicated funding sources to build and maintain the nationwide public safety wireless broadband network. Additionally, a source of funding will be required to support the PSBL to help ensure a nationwide framework for interoperability.

Contact Your Senators and Representatives
Download the Letter Template
View the Talking Points
View the Background
View the Press Conference on CSPAN

For more information about this issue please contact Yucel Ors, Director of Legislative Affairs at orsy@apcomail.org.

Sen. Joe Lieberman introduced the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Enhancement Act of 2009
The bill would "direct the Department of Homeland Security to undertake a study on emergency communications" The study would focus on the importance of amateur radio emergency communications and find ways to enhance there ability to serve their communities. To see a copy of the full bill please go to: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.1755:.

FCC Requests Comments from Public Safety for Development of a National Broadband Plan
Last week the FCC sent out a request for comments on developing the national broadband plan which is due in early 2010. They specifically requested comments dealing with mobile broadband and its use with first responders. Examples they gave were limited access public agencies have to mobile wireless broadband service. Implementation of a successful mobile broadband network for first responders could allow firefighters to receive a recent video of afire or allow police to receive videos of a crime scene or accident. The FCC is also requesting comments on how to protect a broadband network from cyber attacks along with how broadband can be used in Next Generation 9-1-1 and in emergency alert and warning systems. The full press release can be found at www.fcc.gov.