In a world where anyone can call, text, or email anyone else, just about anywhere on the planet--in real time--it is hard to believe that in the United States, we still have first-responder units who cannot talk to one another from the scene of the same incident.
One of the major calls to action coming from the ruins of 9/11 was to create a network so that police, fire, medical, and any other necessary unit could communicate with one another. This network is called FirstNet.
Just a couple of months ago, a report indicated that one of the major roadblocks in getting control of a gunman at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., last September was a hodgepodge of communications systems, rules and policies, coupled with a lack of trained individuals, including, according to the Navy Times, someone who pulled the building fire alarm, thus setting off bells and horns that made it impossible for responding officers to pinpoint the sounds of the gunfire.
FirstNet was conceived in 2002, yet 2014 is quickly coming to an end. We still have no national system that will allow first responders to communicate in a rational manner when they are involved in a nonrational situation. Telecommunications networks are not new. The technology is well-tested and widely deployed. While some will consider this eye-rolling, we went from a technological standing start in 1961 to landing a man on the moon nine years later.
Yet FirstNet still faces hurdles--namely fiscal ones. The long-awaited spectrum auction where television broadcasters are to sell off part of their unused, or underused, spectrum is supposed to be a FirstNet funding mechanism. Congress has already designated $7 billion of spectrum proceeds to go toward funding FirstNet.
The FCC's plan is to raise $20 billion during the auction. But this requires broadcasters to show up to sell their spectrum, and likewise, have buyers on the other end purchasing that spectrum.
There is certainly a demonstrated need for the spectrum--wireless carriers are in desperate need for that spectrum due to ever-increasing consumer demand for wireless data services. However, the FCC is not even allowing the two biggest players--with the deepest pockets--to participate. Neither AT&T nor Verizon can bid for this additional spectrum even though it is obvious they have the greatest need. This point is crucial when you consider that the broadcasters do not yet know how much they are likely to receive from a spectrum auction due to the FCC's "who can buy" restrictions. As a result, many have questioned if enough broadcasters will sign up to make the auction feasible.
This is a primary problem for us in the public-safety community since we need those dollars for FirstNet.
There is another issue to consider, that of the future of our local broadcasters. Local broadcasters are a key part of our communities. No one tunes into Morning Joe to get a glimpse of the day's local weather or the traffic conditions. CNN might be the channel to watch when a passenger jet goes missing, but not so much for local Amber Alerts.
We rely on local television to alert us to local emergencies. It is also where local public-safety officers provide updates and critical information during emergencies such as a missing child or a natural disaster.
The chairman of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, is not a broadcast guy. He is a cable guy--with all that implies.
Wheeler's FCC has already laid down a history of being anti-broadcaster. In this last year, under his leadership, the FCC allowed its investigators into the newsrooms of local TV stations around the country to ask how they decide what to cover and how to cover it. Yet they did not ask the same of cable stations.
The point is that the more damage that is done to local broadcasters, the more damage that is done to local communications.
The public-safety community has two dogs in this fight: the funding of FirstNet and what the future of local broadcasting is in the country. While I enjoy watching Ray Donovan as much as anyone else, I am not ready for a world that consists of all cable programming without any consideration given to the needs of local American communities.
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Stacie Rumenap is the president of Stop Child Predators, a nonprofit organization that combats the sexual exploitation of children nationwide.
Editorial on 09/27/2014