RE: A National Interoperable Broadband Network For Public Safety: Recent Developments

September 23, 2009
Chairman Rick Boucher
Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives
2187 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Ranking Member Cliff Stearns
Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives
2370 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
RE: A National Interoperable Broadband Network For Public Safety: Recent Developments
Dear Chairman Boucher and Ranking Member Stearns,
On behalf of T-Mobile USA, Inc. (“T-Mobile”), I welcome the opportunity to address the best uses of the 758-763/788-793 MHz band, commonly referred to as the 700 MHz D Block. T-Mobile, together with Metro PCS, Leap Wireless, and the Rural Telecommunications Group (the “Competitive Commercial Carriers”), filed a letter last June with the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) proposing an approach for the 700 MHz D Block. That approach, in the view of T-Mobile, best serves consumers, commercial carriers, and the public safety community alike by auctioning the D Block solely for commercial purposes with the auction proceeds directed to fund the build out and maintenance of a nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network.
T-Mobile (together with its predecessor companies) has operated in the United States for more than twelve years and has steadily grown its service offerings to become the fourth largest national wireless competitors in the United States. T-Mobile now provides service to more than 32.8 million wireless subscribers, with a wireless network reaching more than 268 million people, excluding roaming coverage. T Mobile also provides Wi-Fi access at more than 10,000 public locations throughout the country. T-Mobile’s mobile network is based upon the Global System for Mobile Communications (“GSM”) platform and also utilizes General Packet Radio Service (“GPRS”), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (“EDGE”) technologies, and third generation (“3G”) Universal Mobile Telecommunications
Main: 202-654-5900
Fax: 202-654-5963
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September 23, 2009
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System (“UMTS”) technologies, including High Speed Packet Access (“HSPA”) and most recently High Speed Packet Access Plus (“HSPA+”).
T-Mobile has distinguished itself in the wireless marketplace by dedicating itself to offering premier products and services at competitive prices with excellent and responsive customer service. In fact, last week T-Mobile received the highest ranking among national wireless carriers in the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Wireless Retail Sales Satisfaction StudySM – Volume 2. Similarly, T-Mobile has received the highest ranking in nine of the last ten Customer Care Performance Studies conducted by J.D. Power and Associates. These awards reflect the company’s continued high standard of customer care and efforts to satisfy customers’ needs and expectations.
Access To Commercial Spectrum Drives
Competition And Enhances Consumer Welfare
T-Mobile commends the Congress and the FCC for promoting competition and avoiding overly prescriptive regulation of the wireless industry. As a result, consumers in the United States have enjoyed robust, market-driven competition among the larger nationwide carriers and many regional and local carriers. Continuously evolving technologies and services have become a hallmark of this dynamic industry and have greatly benefited consumers. For example, more efficient 3G technologies and applications, which provide a variety of multimedia services, are already being widely deployed. Moreover, 3.5G technologies such as HSPA and HSPA+ and 4G technologies such as LTE and WiMAX will lead to even more efficient spectrum capabilities and support a wider range of advanced wireless broadband services and applications.
A carrier’s ability to compete successfully in the wireless industry is linked directly to its ability to provide new and innovative services and equipment. Competition, in turn, ensures continued downward pressure on prices and upward pressure on further innovation. Meeting consumers’ seemingly insatiable demands for new advanced wireless services, including wireless broadband, however, can be achieved only if sufficient commercial spectrum is available to provide these services. In fact, widespread availability of competitive wireless broadband services demands that carriers have access to substantial additional commercial spectrum. T-Mobile has urged the government to make at least an additional 200 MHz of spectrum below 3.5 GHz available for commercial broadband services within five years in order to meet growing consumer demand.
As the Congress recognized when it enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, ubiquitous deployment of broadband services is key to economic development and recovery. Wireless technologies often provide more economic and efficient means of introducing broadband services to underserved and unserved areas. In contrast, the inability to deploy competitive, and thus affordable, wireless broadband services in many areas will deprive consumers of unfettered access to jobs, health care, education, public
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services and resources, and other opportunities. Thus, it is critical to American consumers that service providers gain access to sufficient commercial spectrum to provide competitive wireless broadband services.
Furthermore, in only two decades members of the U.S. wireless industry already have invested hundreds of billions of dollars to construct facilities, improve the robustness of networks, increase spectrum efficiency, and develop new services and technologies, and will continue to do so going forward. The wireless industry, which has a proven track record, is a major employer and a key driver of the U.S. economy. History demonstrates that allocating additional spectrum for commercial use will have a cascading effect of, among other things, attracting investment opportunities, injecting funding into the economy, and creating new jobs.
The 700 MHz D Block Includes Prime Spectrum For
Competitive Commercial Advanced Wireless Broadband Services
A substantial disparity has developed between the spectrum holdings of the two largest U.S. wireless carriers and the more limited spectrum resources of all of their competitors. Leveraging their tremendous size and resources, in 2008 AT&T and Verizon Wireless dominated Auction No. 73, obtaining prime 700 MHz licenses for a total of $16 billion, or 84 percent of the total auction revenues. Verizon Wireless secured the six largest 22 MHz C Block licenses that cover the continental U.S. and Hawaii. AT&T secured nearly a third of the 12 MHz B Block licenses, providing valuable 700 MHz coverage in most, if not all, major markets in the United States.
The need for commercial spectrum capacity will only continue to grow as consumers increase their use of wireless broadband services. Indeed, many active bidders in the 700 MHz auction came away empty handed or with less spectrum than desired, and indicated their strong interest in additional broadband spectrum. The 700 D Block includes paired spectrum that is ideal for 4G and other advanced wireless broadband services. Thus, auctioning the 700 MHz D Block for solely commercial purposes would help level the spectral playing field and enhance the opportunities for the provision of competitive broadband services. Allocating additional commercial spectrum also will help the United States better compete in the global marketplace, where other countries are taking bold steps to provide operators with access to additional spectrum for the deployment of wireless broadband services. Given the dramatic growth in commercial broadband services, and the substantial unsatisfied demand for paired broadband spectrum, Congress should be increasing – not decreasing – the amount of spectrum devoted to commercial broadband uses.
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September 23, 2009
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Consumers Are Best Served By Auctioning The D Block
And Allocating The Proceeds To The Public Safety Community
The prompt auctioning of the 700 MHz D Block for commercial purposes would benefit consumers and public safety interests by facilitating competition in the wireless market and providing a revenue source for public safety. T-Mobile fully supports the public safety community’s efforts to build state of the art, interoperable, broadband networks throughout the nation. In ideal circumstances, unlimited amounts of both spectrum and funding would be available now to meet the demands of all commercial carriers and all public safety agencies; but that ideal world is not the real world. Instead, lawmakers must focus on the best solution that considers existing conditions and future opportunities and challenges. We realize that there are numerous proposals before the Congress and the FCC for handling the D Block spectrum. T-Mobile firmly believes that the approach the Competitive Commercial Carriers have proposed is the one that best advances the public interest. However, we also note that the National Emergency Number Association (“NENA”) has put forth a promising proposition, which addresses both spectrum use and funding issues, that is worth consideration by lawmakers.
By the FCC’s own account, nearly 100 MHz of spectrum has been allocated for public safety use across multiple spectrum bands. In fact, 24 MHz of the 700 MHz spectrum alone has been allocated for public safety use, 10 MHz of which has been designated for broadband services. A 10 MHz block of paired spectrum is sufficient to support a public safety broadband network at this time, particularly if the network takes advantage of new, more efficient technologies. In fact, the record shows in the FCC’s D Block proceeding that the majority of the public safety community has embraced 4G LTE technology, stating that they support transitioning to LTE technology or deploying LTE (to the extent it is available). More than ten cities and/or states, including New York City; New York State; New Jersey; New Mexico; Washington, DC; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; San Antonio, TX; Chesapeake, VA; and San Francisco, Oakland and Jan Jose, CA, have sought FCC approval to begin constructing broadband networks on the existing 10 MHz of public safety spectrum in the 700 MHz band. In addition, as services and technologies advance, it is possible that over time some or all of the narrowband 14 MHz of the 700 MHz public safety spectrum could be transitioned to broadband services, providing a larger swath of 700 MHz broadband spectrum for public safety use. The industry also will continue to make advances on broadband technologies that will improve spectrum efficiency, which will benefit public safety and commercial entities alike.
Parties to the FCC’s D Block proceeding widely acknowledge that the goals of building and maintaining any public safety broadband network will not be realized unless funding can be found to support those efforts. This immutable fact remains true regardless of whether public safety has access to the 700 MHz D Block. Given the current economic crisis and severe resource constraints facing most local and state governments, public safety agencies face even more acute funding challenges. Accordingly, the gating issue to the
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construction of a nationwide public safety broadband network is cost. Without financial support, no nationwide interoperable broadband public safety network will be possible.
Identifying a dedicated source of funds to help build and maintain a public safety broadband network would be a major step forward. Congress should strongly consider legislation that would enable the FCC to auction the 700 MHz D Block for purely commercial use and funnel the auction proceeds to the public safety community for the construction and maintenance of a public safety broadband network. While it is difficult to predict the exact revenues from any future auction, using the winning bids from the 700 MHz auction in 2008 as a starting point, the estimated proceeds from an auction of the D Block could range from between $2 and $9 billion, depending on various factors like the band plan, licensing rules, and the condition of the economy. Although the auction proceeds alone would not be sufficient to fully fund and maintain a nationwide public safety broadband network, they would provide a valuable beginning and make the remaining funding challenges more manageable.
Conclusion
Thank you for the opportunity to address the competitive and consumer benefits presented by the 700 MHz D Block. Auctioning the D Block for solely commercial use would facilitate competition in the wireless marketplace while also creating the opportunity to provide the public safety community with a much needed infusion of funds.
Very truly yours,
Thomas J. Sugrue
Vice President, Government Affairs