BROADCASTS.com

Published: Feb. 24, 2008, 11:57 p.m.

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Intro: In\\nthis podcast we continue discussion on the in-progress FCC 700 MHz\\nspectrum auction, with a focus on the D-Block public safety piece.

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Mike: Gordon, can you give us a little background on the auction?

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Back in 2005 Congress passed a law that requires all U.S. TV\\nstations to convert to all digital broadcasts and give up analog\\nspectrum in the 700 MHz frequency band. This law will free up 62 MHz of\\nspectrum in the 700 MHz band and effectively eliminate channels between\\n52 and 69. This conversion, which has a deadline of February 18, 2009, has freed up spectrum that is being split up by the FCC into five blocks:

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• A-Block - 12 MHz, split up into 176 smaller economic areas
  
• B-Block - 12 MHz, split up into 734 cellular market areas
  
• C-Block - 22 MHz, up into 12 regional licenses
  
• D-Block - 10MHz, combined with approximately 10MHz allocated for public safety, a single national license.
  
• E-Block - 6 MHz, split up into 176 smaller economic areas

\\nEach Block has a reserve price set by FCC and if a reserve price is\\nnot met in the auction, the FCC will end up re-auctioning that piece of\\nspectrum.

Mike:\\nI know we discussed the auction a few weeks ago and not much has\\nchanged. Can you give us an update on where the auction is today?

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Bidding round 102 came to a close yesterday afternoon with $19,524,595,900 (last week the auction finished at $19,450,389,100 - it is slowing) in total\\nprovisionally winning bids. Things have slowed considerably with only\\n40 new bids placed in round 102. For reference, on Thursday, each round\\naveraged about 50 new bids.

Most active in the final round\\nyesterday were E-Block licenses in the Bismark, North Dakota and Rapid\\nCity, South Dakota areas along with B-Block licenses in the\\nsoutheastern United States.

The public safety D-Block still has not had a bid since the first round and will end up being re-auctioned by the FCC.

This\\nmay end up being the last week (an FCC decision but I\'m thinking so).\\nAfter the auction is closed the FCC will announce the winners.

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Mike: Let\'s talk specifically about D-Block, the public safety piece. What\'s happened - why are we not seeing any new bids?

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I think you have to go back and look at the history of D-Block. Early on it appeared Frontline Wireless\\nwould be one of the biggest bidders for D-Block spectrum - the company\\nwas setup for D-Block and had worked closely with the FCC on putting\\ntogether specifications for the spectrum. Frontline built a formidable team including Vice Chairman Reed Hundt, who\\nserved as Chairman of the FCC between 1993 and 1997. The business plan,\\nthe organization, the technology seemed to all be in place........ On\\nJanuary 12 the company placed the following statement on their website:\\n

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Frontline Wireless is closed for business at this time. We have no further comment.

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Another company, Cyren Call also looked like they were planning to bid on the D-Block Auction but did not.

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Mike: So what\\nhappened?

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Rumor has it Frontline could not attract enough funders - it\\nseemed like a good investment - or at least you may think so up front.\\nMany are now asking if the FCC\'s approach to solving the public safety\\ninter-operability problem is in trouble. At the same time many are also\\nasking "Is there a better way?"

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I\'ve always liked the idea of public-private partnerships and we\'ve seen them work in times of disaster - last August I wrote here about the Minneapolis I-35 bridge collapse tragedy and how within minutes USI Wireless\\nopened their subscription-based Wi-Fi service so anyone could use it\\nfor free. US Wireless didn\'t just stop there - because the network had\\nonly been built around part of the disaster, the company installed\\nadditional Wi-Fi radios in areas surrounding the catastrophe to blanket\\nit with signals, providing an additional 12 megabits per second of\\ncapacity to the area around the bridge collapse.

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A national network built from scratch may be too big of a bite though.

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Mike: So what are we looking at for a solution?

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Last month I had an interesting conversation with Rivada Networks\\u2019 Senior Vice President for External Affairs John Kneuer about emergency responder\\ncommunications and the FCC Spectrum Auction.. Rivada uses existing cellular networks and commercial off-the-shelf technology to deliver high-speed voice and data services over a network that can survive natural or man-made disasters.\\nI like the idea of using the existing commercial infrastructure for\\npublic safety for lots of reasons.

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State homeland\\nsecurity officials have struggled for years with the inability of local\\nemergency responders to communicate with each other and their federal\\ncounterparts during disasters. This inter-operability problem is so\\nserious it has been identified as the number one concern of state\\nhomeland security officials in the National Governors Association 2007 State Homeland Security Directors Survey. Here\'s a quote from the report:

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Mike: How does this system work?

Rivada uses existing cellular networks and commercial off-the-shelf technology to deliver high-speed voice and data services over a network that can survive natural or man-made disasters.\\nRight now Rivada is working with National Guard units in 11 states\\n(Alabama, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana,\\nMassachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington).\\nThese units are installing new communications systems for voice and\\ndata services over a network that uses existing commercial\\ninfrastructure. Not relying on a single network makes a lot of sense\\nwhen you consider communications survival during natural or man-made\\ndisasters.

According to a Rivada press release, the Louisiana\\nArmy National Guard decided last year to adopt their interoperable\\npublic safety communications system for the following reasons:

• Is available today,
• Does not require new spectrum allocation or depend on federal spectrum auctions or mandates, and
• Offers far greater range and capability at a fraction of the cost of other existing or planned technologies.

\\nRivada also supplements existing technology and infrastructure as needed by:

• Building new towers in areas without sufficient commercial infrastructure;
• Employing\\nRivada Interoperable Communications Extension Systems (ICES) \\u2013 \\u201cfly-in?\\nunits capable of being deployed within hours \\u2013 where existing\\ninfrastructure has been degraded or destroyed;
• Using\\nproprietary backwards-compatible technology to provide full\\ninteroperability between cell phones, PDAs, laptops, landlines and\\ntraditional \\u2018walkie talkie\\u2019-type Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems; and
• Combining all of these elements into an efficient network architecture.

\\nMike: Who would these leasing agreements be with?

Right\\nnow Rivada is not saying who they are making leasing agreements with\\nbut it seems like a safe bet to assume Verizon, Sprint and AT&T\\nwill be involved - it would be good revenue along with PR and\\nadvertising for the companies. In terms of the public safety personnel\\nit makes a whole lot of sense because they would be able to use their\\nday-to-day wireless devices in emergency situations.

The providers would build out, maintain and update the infrastructure....... I\'m liking this kind of solution.'