Homeland security is likely to be a big theme of the FCC抯 open agenda meeting next month. The Commission is expected to vote March 17 on an order permitting it to create a Public Safety/Homeland Security Bureau, sources said Mon. Chmn. Kevin Martin promised at a post-Katrina FCC meeting in Atlanta to create the new bureau. No existing entities at the FCC would be eliminated; a new bureau consolidating public safety oversight at the FCC would be created. So far, the FCC hasn抰 laid out details on the bureau, except to say it will manage public safety communications, including 911 centers and first responders, priority emergency communications, emergency alerts, and infrastructure reporting and analysis during emergencies. Martin should have little trouble selling the new bureau to fellow commissioners: Comrs. Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein backed its creation at the Atlanta meeting.nnOn a 2nd security-themed item at the March meeting, the FCC is likely to approve an order that could clear the way for public safety entities to provide video and other broadband applications, in addition to voice communications, in the 700 MHz band. Martin late Fri. began to circulate both items with colleagues in preparation for the meeting. Public safety agencies want the capacity for wireless transmission of digital images to patrol cars or to stream video in the field during emergencies -- and this demands larger channels, the National Capital Region Interoperability Program said in a report last year. D.C. officials have been testing public safety uses on 700 MHz under an experimental FCC license
展开▼
