[Go to www.congress.org to find the addresses and fax numbers for your lawmakers]

[Insert Chapter Letterhead]

The Honorable [Senator/Representative]
[U.S. Senate / U.S. House of Representatives]
Washington, DC [Zip for Senate is 20510 / Zip for House is 20515]

Dear [Senator/Representative Name]: 

I am writing to you on behalf of the [Chapter] of APCO International to ask you to support our effort urge Congress to immediately introduce and pass legislation to allocate an additional 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band (D Block) to public safety to build a nationwide public safety interoperable mobile broadband network.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is planning to address this issue again by the disposition of the D Block via auction. The first attempt by the FCC to auction the spectrum failed miserably.  Public safety officials, service providers and infrastructure vendors agree that a more effective method would be to allocate the D Block directly to public safety organizations in order to create a national broadband network that would meet the critical needs of first responders.

Our fire, emergency medical, law enforcement and other emergency professionals must have access to the most modern and reliable communications capabilities that the nation offers so they can communicate with each other and with federal officials across agencies and geography during emergencies. The ability for public safety to have seamless nationwide roaming capability on a wireless broadband network that is hardened to public safety requirements is achievable and essential for public safety to meet its ever increasing responsibilities.

The additional 10 MHz of spectrum will be combined with the current 10 MHz of spectrum that is allocated to public safety to create a 20 MHz block of spectrum to build a nationwide public safety broadband network. When built, the new broadband network will be able to support a broad range of public safety, government, critical infrastructure and consumer applications such as voice, video, and data services.

Our country's state, local, tribal, and federal government agencies need the additional D block spectrum to build a robust mobile wireless broadband network that will improve our nation's homeland security and provide first responders with new interoperable communications technologies that are urgently needed. The mobile broadband network will also enable state, local, and tribal governments to provide more cost effective services to their communities and save local and state governments millions of dollars in administering such programs as reading water meters and deploying smart grid technologies. The envisioned public/private partnership will also provide much needed public safety as well as commercial broadband service to rural America.

We, the voting constituents that provide critical public safety communications services to your district and state, look forward to working with you to establish the appropriate spectrum and monetary policy framework that will revolutionize the way our first responders and local and state governments are able to communicate for decades to come. To that end, we ask you to work with your colleagues in Congress to introduce and pass legislation to allocate the D block spectrum to public safety and provide an annually recurring and dedicated funding source to build and maintain the nationwide public safety wireless broadband network. Our nation cannot afford to miss this one-time-only opportunity and we call on Congress to support our first responders who put their lives on the line every day to protect and serve their communities. We thank you for your continued support.


Sincerely,


[Name and Title]


cc: APCO International