700 MHz Plan Envisions One Licensee

The commission wants to know what Americans think about a centralized national approach that it says would maximize the access of public safety organizations to interoperable broadband spectrum in the 700 MHz band.

That's the proposal in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which also seeks to promote deployment of "advanced broadband applications, related radio technologies and modern, IP-based system architecture."

The item proposes that the FCC allocate 12 megahertz of the 700 MHz public safety spectrum from wideband to broadband use, assign it nationwide to a single national public safety broadband licensee and permit that entity also to operate on a secondary basis on the narrowband public safety spectrum in the 700 MHz band.

(Radio World)