FCC HOMELAND SECURITY EFFORTS FOCUS ON PUBLIC SAFETY, MASS MEDIA

In outlining plans for FAC, MacBride said: “Everybody noticed in New York when we had an emergency that nobody used the Emergency Alert System, they went right to CNN,” MacBride said. “Fortunately in New York, most of the major television systems were cabled to the cable system and so all those people who got cable were still getting communications via television, which is obviously extremely important in keeping everybody informed.” In absence of that scenario, viewers could have lost (and did lose) over-air broadcast, including possibility of those signals being lost on cable as well, she said. MacBride said FAC was examining how to develop best practices for media, particularly in smaller communities where all towers might be located at one tower farm that wouldn’t have same protections as systems in larger communities. “All the towers are probably located at one tower farm in the community and would be very easy to take down. Many people would find that very frightening.”

MacBride also cited wireless priority access service as federal priority. “It’s still working through some of its initial growing pains and we are trying to facilitate that,” she said. VoiceStream Wireless has waiver petition pending at FCC that would enable it to roll out initial priority access service in N.Y. and Washington, system that has been in final negotiations at National Communications System since late last year. “We want to make sure as we work hard on the national security side to get the concentric rings of the local response and the state response and then the federal response all being able to coordinate with each other,” MacBride said. “Priority access service is kind of how you get that last piece in.” FCC also is focusing on interoperability and other spectrum issues for public safety agencies, MacBride said. Part of that effort includes spectrum audit for private wireless licensees to evaluate which licenses still are being used and which can be pulled back by FCC. Also pending, she said, is proposal that would reconfigure spectrum at 800 MHz and other bands. That item “will ask a lot of questions about rethinking the whole way we've been putting together spectrum at 800 MHz, which has had limitations,” she said.

Commission’s audit of private land mobile radio licenses will continue to accept responses through early March, said Mary Schultz, chief of Wireless Bureau’s Licensing & Technical Analysis Branch. FCC has seen response rate of close to 50% so far, meaning that about 100,000 licensees haven’t responded yet, she said. In some cases, recipients of audit letter are confused about whether FCC query has to do with broadcast or another license, she Schultz said. In other cases, respondents have said they no longer owned business that had been using license but it wasn’t clear what happened to license, she said. Deputy Bureau Chief Kathleen O'Brien Ham said audit marked first time that Commission had taken that step. Chmn. Powell had lauded progress of effort at last FCC meeting. “We may be looking at doing this in other bands such as 800 MHz, as well,” Ham said. FCC is looking at potential ways to automate inventory process, she said. “Spectrum should not lie fallow.”

Tasks that remain for NCC before its term expires in Feb. 2003, according to memo distributed to committee members Fri., include: (1) Submitting for FCC review and approval operational plan for national interoperability that includes shared or priority system among users in spectrum such as band at 700 MHz that has been set aside for interoperability. To that end, NCC members have been working on standards for equipment that operates on wideband interoperability channels. (2) Recommending by Nov. 28 technical standards for full interoperability and network integration. (3) Providing recommendation to FCC, including possibilities for clearing 700 MHz public safety band of incumbent TV stations.

Separately on Fri., Public Safety Wireless Network, which is sponsored by Depts. of Justice and Treasury, released report documenting how public safety communications worked in response to Pentagon attack Sept. 11. Report concluded that majority of local public safety responders at scene encountered few difficulties establishing interoperable communications during initial response. As result of preexisting mutual aid agreements, most first responders had radio frequencies of Arlington County, Va., programmed into their equipment, report said. But new challenges emerged as more state and federal agencies arrived at Pentagon because responders included those that didn’t have communications agreements with local public safety agencies, report said. “No means of direct radio communication was directly available to these secondary response agencies, and these agencies were left to find alternate means to communicate,” report said.

One idea that emerged at NCC meeting was need for national interoperability infrastructure for public safety agencies, which meeting participants acknowledged was “ideal” that would face funding and technical challenges. Interoperability spectrum for public safety is set aside in bands such as 700 MHz, although no funding or other requirement is in place that such systems include nationwide infrastructure.