The Senate Commerce Committee has introduced a bill designed to guide the NTIA as it distributes $1 billion worth of public-safety radio interoperability grants by the end of September. The bill would provide a roadmap for the NTIA and allow up to $100 million of the total figure to be used for technology reserves. Those reserves would allow emergency response teams to pre-position communications equipment in regional facilities that can be quickly deployed during a state of emergency. Some analysts see the bill as a sign that Congress doesn't have a lot of faith in NTIA chief John Kneuer to get the job done by the end of September. Indeed, Kneuer has yet to issue a single grant since the fiscal year began last October.
For more on the billion dollar grant program:
- read this article from RCR News