Public safety groups call for firm date for spectrum availability

First responder groups in Southern Ontario are urging Industry Canada to adopt a firm deadline for making additional public safety spectrum available. The City of Toronto's Emergency Services branch says the department should move quickly to resolve any potential inference issues in the region between TV and communications. Industry Canada is proposing to make TV channels 64 and 69 available to public safety as part of a revised band plan for the 700 MHz band. But public safety groups say the department has to do more to make this critical spectrum available for use. Under current rules, analog TV spectrum has to be vacated by broadcasters by August 31, 2011, but in some regions this spectrum will be unusable by public safety because of temporary digital TV station allotments. "We cannot over emphasize the need for the department, not the CRTC, to clearly establish a firm date for the shut down of any and all TV services on channels 64 and 69 with the goal of doing so well in advance of the current 2011 date," division chief Frank Pappone tells Industry Canada. "In order to establish an aggressive date that recognizes the immediate needs of public safety to access channels 64 and 69 in critical areas, we further urge the department to publish the final DTV allotment plan without delay so that broadcasters can finalize plans to vacate public safety spectrum." Canada's national police force is also calling for a quick resolution to the issue. Paul Teeple, the RCMP's director general of infrastructure, engineering and development, tells Industry Canada that it's planning a voice radio system modernization program for the 2010-1012 time frame and the 700 MHz band could be well suited for this purpose. "As part of this realignment, we request that the TV channels 64 and 69 be made available to public safety in all parts of the country by a firm date of 31 August 2011, or sooner in order to reduce expensive and time-consuming changeover of systems at a later date," he writes. While the public safety community sees this band as critical for future emergency communications, the broadcasters have a different view. CBC/Radio-Canada's senior director of strategy and planning François Conway says the shutoff of analog TV on August 31, 2011 can't be viewed as a firm date because Industry Canada has yet to publish its post DTV transition plan. "The proposed frequency plan for public safety in the 700 MHz should be reworded to refer to the end of the transition to DTV instead of specifically August 31, 2011," he writes. "This is important to avoid false expectations from public safety users regarding the date of spectrum release." The Canadian Association of Broadcasters, the industry lobby group for private broadcasters, urges Industry Canada to maintain its stated policy of allowing channels in contentious areas to continue to operate until August 31, 2011. This would give their owners certainty and wouldn't disadvantage them over other stations which aren't in contentious areas and won't have to relocate to a new band until after this date. Public safety and broadcaster comments come as Industry Canada tries to implement a new band plan in response to changes to the 700 MHz band south of the border by the Federal Communications Commission. While it's agreed that harmonizing with the US is a no-brainer, there are still questions remaining about how to protect broadcasters' use of the spectrum, while also opening up new and critical spectrum for public safety. This will be one of the many topics up for discussion at the upcoming Radio Advisory Board of Canada's Spectrum 20/20 event next month.

Public safety groups call for firm date for spectrum availability

News | April 9, 2008

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