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Sprint lobbies Obama on first responder network
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Sprint Nextel reportedly is lobbying the incoming Obama administration to create a $2 billion interoperable cellular network for emergency first responders.
The carrier is pitching a five-year, $2 billion plan to Obama's transition team that, according to Sprint, will be a readibly deployed interoperable network. The plan specifically calls for 100 satellite-based light trucks that would respond to emergencies, as well as some 100,000 handsets and pieces of equipment positioned at up to 40 pre-selected sites.
The plan is emerging in the wake of the FCC's failure to create an interoperable network for first responders using the D block of the 700 MHZ band. Last fall the FCC created preliminary auction rules to create such a network, but the measure foundered and a new framework was not put in place. The FCC tried to auction off the D-block spectrum during the original 700 MHz spectrum auction in early 2008, but was unable to get a commercial bidder.
For more:
- see this article
Related articles:
FCC proposes new plan to auction D block
FCC chairman: D-block, AWS-3 auctions won't happen in 2008
Comments
Posted by Surfdawg | January 21, 2009 - 10:06am
This is a solution that does not require time-consuming and expensive R&D. A simple Cell on Light Truck with a satellite backhaul...allowing a first responder to quickly establish situational awareness and command and control capabilities for an incident small or large. Let's see what happens...
Posted by Anonymous | January 21, 2009 - 10:16am
Sprint Sr. Leadership cannot manage their own network very well and will probably soon outsource their core Network business because Sprint's Sr. leadership in Network Services cannot figure out how to do it better or cheaper than an outsourcing vendor?(sounds like Sr. Leadership needs to be outsourced?). WHY would any customer in their right mind (even the government) want Sprint as a service provider? So is the Obama Administration now going to support a company that is aggressively trying to "outsource" jobs? I thought it was a priority of the Obama administration to "strongly encourage" companies not to outsource jobs?
Posted by Anonymous | January 21, 2009 - 10:50am
Sprint corp is a complete disaster. This proposal will fall on deaf ears in DC.
100 COWS and 100k of handsets for 2 billion? Make me laugh!
Posted by Anonymous | January 21, 2009 - 3:35pm
Sprint's back handed way of asking for a bailout without officially asking.
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