| Abstrakt: |
This report summarizes salient points of the FCC rules regarding the creation of a public-private partnership to build and manage a national communications network for public safety use. The Communications Act of 1934, as amended, empowers the FCC to set rules for auctions and to take steps to ensure the safety of the public. The FCC has used this authority to create a governance structure allowing a Public Safety Broadband Licensee to share spectrum rights with a commercial enterprise and to collaborate in the construction and management of a shared network. The two licensees and the network will operate according to requirements set out by the FCC as part of its rulemaking for the upcoming auction of frequencies within the 700 MHz band. These frequencies are being vacated by television broadcasters in their switch to digital technologies. As mandated by the FCC, the partnership is to build a shared network on spectrum capacity assigned to two separate entities. One partner will be a not-forprofit corporation, created for this purpose, that will hold a Public Safety Broadband License. The other partner will be the winning bidder for a national license, known as the D Block, that will be offered as part of the 700 MHz auction. Both licensees will be required to conform to rules set by the FCC in creating a Network Sharing Agreement (NSA). The NSA will in effect be the business plan and the contractual foundation for the shared network.... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
