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Originally Posted by n4voxgill
The D Block frequencies are part of the television frequencies being auctioned. They never have been assigned to public safety. What the auction does is requires the bidder to pay the federal treasury the bid price. Those freqeuncies will then be lumped with 10 MHz of public safety frequencies that have been assigned to the Public Safety Trust. The D block bidder must enter into a contract the the public safety trust to build a natiionwide broadband system. The frequencies will be under the sole control of the public safety trust and the D block bidder. As the bidder builds out the system, public safety agencies will set the standards that the system must be built and then always have first choice to use the frequencies. The ones not being used by public safety can be offered to the public like cellphone service, but can always be pre-empted if needed for public safety.
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I understand the part about these being the old higher end of the UHF TV Spectrum (which used to go even higher...up to channel 82 I believe). The way spectrum has always been allocated for public safety in the past, is blocks were set aside and the individual agencies applied for licenses within those blocks. The public "owned" the airwaves and the FCC merely administrated them. Obviously, for something nationwide like cell phone service, blocks of frequencies were sold off throughout the country so a commercial company could "own" those airwaves and assure itself (the "A" carrier and the "B" carrier) that their investment in equipment would have a chance to provide a return.
But for public safety? Are we talking about the equivalent of a nationwide broadband, wireless network for public safety only? Or are we talking about a nationwide broadband service (the "D" block) that one of the requirements is the bidders set aside 10MHz for public safety use only (and I presume for minimal or no fee)?
Otherwise, I see it as no different than forcing the public safety agencies to use local cell phone (or similar) service.
Public safety should build their own networks on "free" frequencies allocated by the FCC so as to eliminate interference. They should not have to purchase (bid) or re-purchase the frequencies from a commercial entity.