NEW YORK - The FCC's chairman remained hopeful yesterday that someone can bid on a swath of airwaves for a national public-safety network, even though the most likely prospect has collapsed.
Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin's comments came a day after a spokeswoman for Frontline Wireless LLC said the company was "closed for business."
The new network was intended to be used primarily for public safety, and would have allowed firefighters, for example, to transmit real-time video images of fires or other disasters back to command centers using wireless equipment. One of the goals of the network would be to help remedy some of the communications failures that have occurred between emergency personnel in previous disasters.
Frontline had deep connections in Washington and with technology investors, and had been seen as the most likely candidate for building up a new national wireless network, which Frontline estimated would cost about $10 billion.
The auction is set to begin Jan. 24. Upfront payments were required to be made tomorrow in order to participate in the auction. Frontline apparently wasn't able to come up with the $128 million that was required.
Martin said the auction for the spectrum would proceed regardless. "We'll have to see" what happens, he said.
The FCC is set to auction off a large block of the public airwaves that's currently being used by TV broadcasters. It will become available once they switch to all-digital transmission in February 2009.
A swath of that spectrum was set aside to build a national emergency communications network, with a number of conditions imposed on whomever wins it at auction. They include ambitious build-out requirements for the network, and satisfying conditions set by a public safety trustee.
With Frontline apparently out of the bidding, it is still possible that a major telecommunications company such as AT&T Inc. or Verizon Wireless could get the spectrum and satisfy the FCC's conditions.
The network has commercial applications, but public safety users would take priority.
