In arguably one of the most significant events in U.S. public-safety communications history, both houses of Congress today passed payroll-tax legislation to reallocate 700 MHz D Block spectrum to first responders and provide $7 billion in federal grant money for the deployment of a dedicated nationwide LTE network.
“This is going to transform public-safety communications the same way that two-way radio did in the 1930s,” said Charles Dowd, deputy chief for the New York City Police Department. “That’s how big of a change this is going to be.”
This morning, the House of Representatives voted 293-132 in favor of the measure, followed shortly by a 60-36 vote in the Senate to approve the bill, which was the product of House-Senate conference committee negotiations during the last two months. President Barack Obama has vowed to sign the legislation into law shortly after returning from a West Coast trip.
While the focal point of the legislation is to extend the payroll-tax cut and unemployment benefits, the measure includes spectrum-policy language designed to make more airwaves available to commercial wireless operator via FCC auctions — a significant revenue source for the bill — and to address public-safety broadband needs.
With the reallocation of the D Block — the 10 MHz swath of spectrum adjacent to the airwaves licensed to the PSST — first responders will have 20 MHz of contiguous spectrum on which to deploy the proposed LTE network. The buildout of the network will be funded largely by the $7 billion in federal grants that the legislation dedicates for the task, $2 billion of which will be available before any auction proceeds are realized.
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