Recently there has been concern about legislation introduced by Congressman Peter King of New York: H.R.607, the Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011. That bill targets spectrum between 420-440 MHz and 450-470 MHz for auction within 10 years of the act’s passage. What’s unclear is whether this is only public safety spectrum, or all spectrum. If all spectrum, then the 450-451 MHz, and 455-456 MHz, Part 74 Broadcast Auxiliary Services (BAS) Remote Pickup (RPU) bands are threatened. The pertinent language is in Section 207(d)(1) of the proposed legislation.
On February 21 SBE sent an alert to members regarding this bill, and on March 4 EIBASS sent its letter to Congressman King, in support of the SBE objection and also expressing concern about the bill’s impact to the 450/455 MHz RPU bands. Feedback has now been received that the bill’s intent is only to vacate public safety spectrum between 420-440 MHz and 450-470 MHz, and not to all spectrum in these two bands. Section 207(d)(1) is not a clear as it could be, but a public safety-only applicability may well be what the bill’s language was intended to convey.