The Public Safety Alliance (PSA) has announced its support for alternative spectrum that could be auctioned to commercial carriers to provide sufficient federal funding to quickly construct, maintain, and operate a 20 MHz nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network, eliminating the need to auction the D Block.

“We applaud the administration for identifying this alternative spectrum to auction instead of the D Block to support public safety,” APCO International President and PSA spokesperson Richard Mirgon said. 

“It is another key step toward a long overdue solution to the interoperability problems, and broadband spectrum needs of our Nation’s first, second and situational preventers and responders. At this point, there is no legitimate reason for the FCC to rush to auction the D Block since alternative revenue sources from spectrum auction have been identified,” further he adds.

Last week, PSA urged House Energy and Commerce committee to reverse the FCC’s National Broadband recommendation to auction the D block, and instead allocate the D block to public safety.

The National Troopers Coalition (NTC), the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the National Association of Regional Councils joined with a large coalition of emergency medical services related organizations in the past week to express their strong support for a 20-MHz spectrum commitment to public safety, consistent with the minimum amount of spectrum used for all known commercial deployments of Long Term Evolution (LTE) broadband in the world to date.

 Specifically, these organizations have joined a growing and increasingly diverse effort to get Congress to take the D Block off the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) auction list and allocate it to public safety to join the current 10 MHz already dedicated for a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network.