With only about two weeks left before the FCC unveils its National Broadband Plan, Chairman Julius Genachowski has been revealing more and more details about what the plan will include. In an address to the New America Foundation on Feb. 24, he shared plans to make 500 megahertz of spectrum available with 10 years for mobile broadband use, along with a plan to add a mobility component to the Universal Service Fund.
In a briefing the next day, he said the FCC also would recommend the creation of an interoperable nationwide public safety network using broadband wireless technology.
The rapid growth in wireless data services will drive the need for additional spectrum, Genachowski said. To support that need, he said the FCC will propose asking spectrum licensees, including broadcasters, to “voluntarily relinquish” spectrum in exchange for receiving a portion of auction proceeds. In addition, he said the FCC would propose allowing mobile satellite service and wireless communications service licensees more flexibility in how they use spectrum, including the ability to use the spectrum for mobile broadband.
With regard to Universal Service, Genachowski said the National Broadband Plan will propose the creation of a Mobility Fund as part of broader reforms of the Universal Service Fund. “Without increasing the overall size of universal service funding, the Plan will seek to provide one-time support for deployment of infrastructure enabling robust mobile broadband networks, to bring all states to a minimum level of mobile availability,” he said.
The proposed nationwide public safety network will operate in the 700 MHz band and will be funded, in part, through $16 to $18 billion that the FCC will ask Congress to raise over the next 10 years. In addition, the FCC envisions a D-block auction and also hopes to gain priority access to 700 MHz mobile broadband networks operated by wireless carriers.
