What Would I Do?
My Blog and Commentary this week are both about the first responder community, mostly because I spent last week at the APCO (Associated Public-Safety Communications Officials) conference and exposition in Kansas City. This is also because my observations indicate that all of the activity so far to address interoperability has come from the first responder community itself without any real help from the commercial wireless industry. Yes, many first responders are now using commercial wireless broadband, but the 700-MHz public/private partnership did not happen with the last auction. Now it looks as though the next auction won't be until next year when I suspect we will have a very different FCC, at least when it comes to its commissioners.
After the hearings and request for comments, we will probably see a new Report and Order from the FCC in September, but then nothing much will happen until after the election and we will have lost another year. Both Verizon and AT&T seem to favor a Request for Proposal method of handling the issue instead of another auction, and as you know, I favor a consortium of wireless players all contributing to the network build-out on a regional basis (which could also be done via an RFP). My concerns are that if there is to be a public/private agreement to build and share a network, then it should happen sooner rather than later...
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