WASHINGTON, DC – At a Press conference held on Capitol Hill on December 4, Representatives Jane Harman (D-CA), Curt Weldon (R-PA), and Benjamin Gilman (D-NY) announced the introduction of legislation that will free up needed radio frequency for emergency responders.
H.R. 3397, The Homeland Emergency Response Operations Network (HERO) Act would allocate the 24 MHz radio spectrum to state and local emergency responders. The legislation will close a loophole that allowed TV stations to continue to use the spectrum and will force them to release the frequencies by no later than until December 31, 2006.
“Ineffective and inadequate communications put the lives of emergency responders and civilians at risk,” said Harman, the Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security. “In any emergency, as well as in their day-to-day work protecting communities, law enforcement and fire departments need to instant radio communications. But, if they are from different jurisdictions, they often use different broadcast frequencies or incompatible equipment and are forced to rely on messengers or other means to share information and respond to the emergency.”
On September 11, 1996, the Congressionally-mandated Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee issued its Final Report recommending that 97.5 MHz of additional spectrum be made available for public safety by 2010, including approximately 25 MHz from TV channels 60-69 (746-808 MHz) that should be made available within five years from the date of the report – September 11, 2001.
The HERO Act sets a firm deadline of 2006 by which the Federal Communications Commission must give public safety agencies the broadcast spectrum first set aside for them by Congress in 1997. That spectrum, from 764-776 MHz and 794-806 MHz, is currently occupied by TV broadcasters on channels 63, 64, 68 and 69. Congress conditioned its transfer to public safety agencies on digital television reaching 85% of households. At present, only 1% of households have digital television and most analysts believe that few markets will reach that 85% threshold anytime in the coming decade. The HERO Act removes this threshold requirement.
