FRED U PTON, M ICHI GAN HENR Y A.

WA X M A N , CA LIFORNIA
CHA IRM A N RA N KING M EMBER

ON E HUNDRED TWELFTH CONG RES S

(!Congress of tbe mniteb ~tates

J!;JouS'e of l\epreS'entatibeS'
COMMITIEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
2125 R AYBURN H OUSE O FFICE B UILDING
W ASH INGTON, DC 20515- 6115

Majo rity (202) 225--2927

Mi nority {2021225-3641

April 20, 20 II

The Honorable Julius Genachowski

Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S. W.
Washington , D.C. 20554

Dear Chairman Genachowski:

On June 30, 20 I 0, the bipartisan leadership of the House Committee on Energy and
Commerce and the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet wrote you
to request information on the public safety equipment and device market. In that letter, which is
attached , a bipartisan group of committee members expressed concern about public safety
reliance upon an exclusive or limited vendor pool for equipment and devices. We further noted
that as a result, public safety equipment is often more expensive than comparable commercial
equipment, and that interoperability is undermined. Thi s is of concern in light of our goal to
create a nationwide, interoperable broadband public safety network and the fact that the costs of
this network and related equipment will be borne by local , state, and federal taxpayers.

In your response of Jul y 20, 2010, you explained that publicly available information
indicates that Motorola Corporation has a very significant share - approximately 80 percent
according to The Washing/on Pas/ - of the public safety narrowband equipment market in the
United States. You added that the staff of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security
Bureau believes that proprietary so lutions and market dominance play an important role in
ongoing problem s with interoperability among public safety users and ilmovation, cost, and
competition in the public safety equipment market. Moreover, the current structure of the public
sa fety equipment market may hinder efforts to achieve interoperability for a broadband public
safety network.

These were troubling answers, and more recent deve lopments raise additional co ncerns
about thi s matter. Specifically, news reports indicate that certain public safety jurisdictions that

SkyTel note. To express your views on matters of this letter, send fax to:

House of Representatives
Committee on Energy and Commerce
Majority fax 202 225 1919
Minority fax 202 225 2525 Attn Roger Sherman
Letter to the Ho norable Julius Ge nac howski
Page 2

have recei ved, o r have applied for, waivers for early deployments of 700 M Hz broadband
networks have already awarded contracts to the same dominant vendor. I

In li ght of these developments, we would appreciate your assistance in obtaining

responses to the fo ll owing additiona l questions and requests:

I. Please provide a li st of waiver recipi ents and applicants that have already se lected a
vendor, and identify the vendor.

2. Please indicate whether these jurisdictions followed a competitive bidding process in the
selection of the vendor that is to construct the broadband public safety network.

3. Is thi s vendor(s) supplying eq uipment that co nform s with open, commerci al LTE
standard s?

4 . In add ition to LTE, please indi cate whether these vendors intend to impl ement
proprietary broadband wireless technologie s. If so , how would such propri etary
technol ogies impact :

a. network and device eq uipment costs borne by public safety relat ive to commercial
equipment;

b. the abil ity for public safety to benefit from innovati on in w ireless technologies;

c. the likelihood of terminated product lines or ne w mandatory releases that result in

unique costs to public safety relati ve to commercial techno log ies;

d. publi c safety intero perability at the application, device, and network levels among
netw orks provisioned by differe nt vendors;2

I See Urgent Communications, " Motorola A nnounces First 700 MHz LTE Sys tem for Public
Safety," Jul y 29, 20 I 0, at htt p://urgentco mlll .com/netwo rks and svstems/news/ motoro la-anno unces-Ite-
syste m-20 I 00729/; FierceW ire less, " Motoro la to Bui ld 700 MHz Publi c-Safety Netwo rk in Houston,"
Mar. 18,20 II , at http ://www. fi ercewireless.com/story/motoro la-build-700-mh z-p ublic-safetv- network-
hou ston/20 I 1-03-18.
2 A recent filin g at the FCC indicates that a ve ndor selected to dep loy a publi c sa fety broad band
network in Harr is COllllt)', Texas, may not enable roaming lIsers to access cel1a in appl icati ons. See Lener
fro m M ic hae l A. Lewis, Engineering Consultant, W iley Re in , LLP, to Ma rl ene H. Dortc h, Secretary,
Federal Communi cati ons Commi ss ion (March 16, 20 II ) (" unless juri sdictions have previous ly reached
agree me nt on the use o f a give n application, roaming users may not be able to access that applicati on
even though they w ill be ab le to operate") .
 Letter to the Honorable Julius Genachowski
Page 3

e. the ability of public safety users to enter into partnerships with commercial wireless
providers;

f. competition in the public safety communications equipment market; and,

g. the FCC ' s National Broadband Plan finding that encouraging incentive-based
partnerships with a variety of commercial operators would benefit public safety.

5. How would the construction of early deployed public safety networks by dominant
vendors:

a. be impacted by subsequent adoption of final technical and operations rules governing

700 MHz public safety broadband networks - would the public safety agency be
responsible for paying for any and all network and device changes?;

b. affect achievement of a nationwide level of public safety interoperability at the

device, application , and network levels?

Thank yo u in advance for your assistance with this matter. We would appreciate a
response by May 5, 2011.

Sincerely,

~.d ~p&, nry A. axman

FdUPton /
Chainnan Ranking Member

Chairman
C;£G,&1w
AI~!W . . Eshoo
..-Ranking Member
----
Subcommittee on Communications Subcommittee on Communications
and Technology and Technology

Attachment
SkyTel notes.
- The US professional and public safety wireless market needs Cognitive Radio, using multi-bands, multi-protocols,
spectrum-occupancy sensing and frequency and power agility, on open standard software and hardware.
- The US market is being strangled from inside. Congress here shows only a small clue. The insiders (including in
government) do not want a solution that Cognitive Radio as noted above can provide now (at least now for vehicle-
installed and fixed-site radios now), since they will loose control of the market and their positions.
- SkyTel is proceeding with Cognitive Radio, from 30 to about 1,000 MHz, and will make results fully public, and
cooperates with others seeking this real solution.