House Subcommitee Approves D Block Bill

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jland138

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Members of a key House subcommittee today voted 17-6 to pass a bill that would reallocate the 700 MHz D Block to public safety and provide at least $5 billion in funding for the deployment of a nationwide LTE network for first responders, and that calls for public safety to return its 700 MHz narrowband spectrum to the FCC in the future.

House subcommittee approves D Block bill -- Urgent Communications article

From the article: [Returning the existing 700Mhz narrowband spectrum] has been a source of concern for first-responder representatives, because many public-safety agencies have deployed large, expensive 700 MHz narrowband systems in recent years or are in the process of constructing them, so the prospect of abandoning those systems in less than 10 years may not be politically or financially practical.
 

c5corvette

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... and that calls for public safety to return its 700 MHz narrowband spectrum to the FCC in the future.

From the article: [Returning the existing 700Mhz narrowband spectrum] has been a source of concern for first-responder representatives, because many public-safety agencies have deployed large, expensive 700 MHz narrowband systems in recent years or are in the process of constructing them, so the prospect of abandoning those systems in less than 10 years may not be politically or financially practical.

Moving all these newcoming systems off of 700MHz in 10 years would be about as efficient as the 800MHz rebanding process has been!
 
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DaveNF2G

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So far nobody in government seems to understand that broadband LTE cannot replace narrowband now. Even if they do get it, they are unlikely to take a stand against all of the big industries that want spectrum and new markets, created by legislation rather than competition, because of all of that campaign cash they would have to forego.
 

gmclam

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House Communications Subcommittee OKs Spectrum Auction Bill

Congress is working on screwing up a lot of spectrum related things. The wireless companies (like AT&T) have been lobbying them to get more spectrum (for private broadband). The largest user apparent is TV broadcasters. Even though TV just gave up channels 52 to 69 (108 MHz) they want another 20 channels (120 MHz). And don't think you won't be affected just because you get your (local) TV from cable or satellite.

As typical with Congress, their plan is to sell spectrum and get some money for their own spending, even though the prior auction (from the analog TV cutoff) was not a total success. That's where this D block came from.

Here is another story
 

W2NJS

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The President of CTIA, Steve Largent, is flooding the radio with commercials touting the advantages of giving the "industry" more radio spectrum. Of course he says nothing about who might be using those frequencies right now, just that if you want to happy in the future he needs more space to do his thing. It's a slick, professional program meant to take spectrum away from current users and give it, or in some cases sell it, to the data powerhouses. By all means, if you have Congressmen and Senators to write to, do so and tell them what you think. (I live in DC so I don't have any real Congressional representation.)
 
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DaveNF2G

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Public safety entities need to stop feeding the CTIA beast. Mission critical communications (particularly voice) must be taken off commercial networks and cellphones and conducted exclusively on licensed, agency or municipally operated, Part 90 two-way radio systems. The fees being paid for those alternative modes are enabling CTIA to convince Congress to help them make everybody a rent-paying tenant of the radio spectrum.

If public safety networks have to be surrendered to commercial interests, those agencies using commercial and cellular services now will have only themselves to blame.
 
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