Why the D-block gets little respect

Public safety wants the 700 MHz D-block for its own dedicated emergency communications network (rather than share it with commercial operator), and commercial operators might just be inclined to let them have it.

Ever since the FCC’s initial stab at creating a public-private partnership in the 700 MHz band failed to attract any interest from operators, the FCC has tried to sweeten the deal for prospective bidders, but since the release of the National Broadband Plan was released I would argue the D-block has become less, not more attractive to operators, no matter how cheaply it can be got.

The D-block was supposed to be a grand experiment, combining the need for a national emergency network with private-sector ingenuity. The idea is that an operator would build a national broadband network over the band, which it would be free to use for commercial services, but when a crisis or emergency broke out requiring the coordination of different federal, state and local first responders, all or a portion of the bandwidth would be turned over to those agencies. The FCC was far more enthusiastic about the idea than the operators, though. At auction, the D-block attracted only a single bid, which wasn’t enough to meet the imposed reserve price.

Not giving up, the FCC decided to make the license more attractive by lifting the requirement that winning the operator build the nationwide emergency communications infrastructure, making it responsible only for its own commercial network. That might seem like a good incentive for a commercial operator looking to get a nationwide mobile broadband license on the cheap, but there’s one big difference between now and 2008: the promise of a lot more spectrum.

When the 700 MHz auction started, it was the last big hurrah. The FCC had no plans to auction off any major spectrum bands in the near future, so if an operator wanted to get new licenses for any near-term 4G network, it had to come to the table. But the same broadband plan that eased restrictions on the D-block also identified 180 MHz of new federal and broadcast spectrum set for auction in the next three years. Any operator facing a spectrum crunch might have seriously considered the D-block last year, but now there’s the promise of a lot of airwaves to come as well as the potential easing of restrictions on bands operators already own.

The public safety community seems to have given up on the idea of a public-private partnership, and the operators were never that enthusiastic about it to begin with. Operators are understandably concerned about finding their network capacity pre-empted during emergencies when demand for their services are often the greatest, and first responders are understandably worried about not having a network they don’t fully control in a time of crisis. The only one enthusiastic about this idea is the FCC, which frankly is getting a bit greedy: It wants to raise billions for federal coffers, meet a nationwide security priority and expand access to mobile broadband services. There’s only so much one little D-block can do.