The emergency managers of key city agencies are weighing in on that troublesome chunk of the 700MHz spectrum reserved for public safety—the D Block—telling the Federal Communications Commission that they can't wait for a lost cause.

"The NYPD's opinion, reinforced by conversations with commercial wireless carriers, is that there is simply no business case for a commercial wireless network operator to build a nationwide network that will meet public safety coverage and survivability standards," Charles F. Dowd, Deputy Chief and Commanding Officer of the New York City Police Department wrote to the FCC. The Commission received the statement on June 19.

This comment comes, of course, from the City of 9/11, where communications snafus and setbacks between emergency groups on that awful day highlighted the need for a robust national broadband system into which police, fire, and medical teams could tap. The FCC responded by setting aside a zone of its up-for-auction 700MHz band—the D Block. That portion of the spectrum came with a public safety string attached—the winning bidder can use it for commercial purposes, but has to share the license with a nonprofit that provides national broadband access to emergency responders across the county. They will lease channels from the resource.

To read the full article, click here [1].