Battle of the bandwidth pits TV, public safety

[Gregg Lengling]

By John Simerman

CONTRA COSTA TIMES


Support your local police and firefighters: Turn in your rabbit ears and go digital.

In a high-stakes Washington battle over the airwaves, public safety agencies and TV broadcasters are sparring over a sliver of the ether that could help emergency workers communicate better in natural disasters, terrorist attacks and everyday crises.

Caught in the middle are a dwindling breed of TV viewers: those who pull signals from traditional antennas and tune in to channels from 62 to 69, the realm of home-shopping, religious, community TV and Spanish-language stations across the country.

Emergency officials in the Bay Area and other urban areas have long coveted that slice of radio spectrum, called the 700 MHz band, saying they desperately need it to relieve severe overcrowding.

The new real estate, they say, holds the promise of modern systems that could streamline the sharing of data among "first responders," and allow police, fire and other agencies across a region to communicate directly.

Seven years ago, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission ordered the broadcasters to clear out by the end of 2006 and operate those stations over the digital channels they have been granted.

They set the deadline only for areas where 85 percent of households receive digital TV. But the move to digital TV has been slower than expected. For the Bay Area and most population centers in the country, the 2006 deadline is pillow-soft.

Broadcasters are holding fast, and some of the largest and most profitable stations on those channels are owned by national networks such as Disney and Univision. In the meantime, public safety officials are growing frustrated by the delay.

"I've got to get the broadcasters off my channels," said Steve Overacker, Contra Costa County's telecommunications manager. "When we have an earthquake, are we going to be watching TV or watching whether police or the fire are going to show up to help get our lives back together?"

A study this year by Motorola found that just 75 TV stations, with an average of 3 percent of TV households tuning in weekly, are holding back a vast new wave of public safety improvements in places where more than half the nation's population live.

In the Bay Area, a handful of TV stations remain in those upper channels, including KTLN, a Novato-based Christian station and part of the Total Living Network.

Station manager Brian Avery said he didn't know how many viewers watch KTLN over rabbit ears but that its analog transmission from Mount Burdell plays another role: to ensure that the station is eligible under FCC rules requiring local cable companies to pick up some local stations.

Both sides agree that unless Congress or the FCC makes changes, broadcasters in most areas will keep control over the spectrum well past 2006. Lately, some members of Congress are moving to do just that, bolstered by a 9/11 Commission recommendation to make it happen.

One California congresswoman is pushing legislation that would make the 2006 deadline firm.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, noted that during Southern California wildfires last year, some emergency crews, unable to talk over radio, resorted to runners. Harman said the 1997 law created a loophole that few people saw coming.

"I think it's a no-brainer," said Harman. "We have state-of-the-art, interoperable communications on the battlefield in Iraq. Why don't we have it in our battlefields?"

But what about TV viewers who can't afford cable or satellite, or just don't want them?

Broadcasters say many low-income or minority viewers could lose out. Univision, for one, has argued that a tight deadline would disenfranchise a large segment of its Spanish-speaking viewers.

"As much as everybody would like to see this (digital) conversion, you've got lots of people out there who suddenly won't receive any of these signals," said Jeffrey Yorke, spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters. "You're denying a huge portion of the audience."

The issue could carry political heft. One source close to the debate said some members of Congress want any change to include a "last-Granny rule," to protect anyone who loses their favorite TV signal.

Some are studying Berlin, Germany, which sped up the transition to digital TV by subsidizing converters for low-income viewers, allowing them to receive digital programs on their old sets.

"Grandmas vote, so there is that concern out there," said Bob Gurss, director of legal and government affairs for the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, International.

"I think the answer is either Grandma's going to have to get a new TV, which may not be a feasible response, or if Grandma doesn't want to get cable, we're probably going to look at buying her a converter box."

New radio spectrum is not a cure-all, safety officials caution. But not having it forces agencies to struggle with makeshift fixes.

"Spectrum can be a show-stopper," said Bill De Camp, a state telecommunications planner who is helping to plot uses for the 700 MHz band in Northern California.

One advantage to that particular swath: it neighbors frequencies already used by some public safety agencies; many of them wouldn't need new radio equipment. Another: the new spectrum could enable police, for example, to send and receive fingerprints and pictures in their patrol cars.

Some agencies point to the Amber Alert system. Now, officers in their patrol cars can't receive pictures of missing children who may be in immediate danger. With a wide band of spectrum and the right gear, officers could scan in the photos and send them to other cops.

The idea to shift those TV channels to public safety isn't new. It first came eight years ago, in a report by a federal committee that called for the change within five years. The report, ironically, was dated Sept. 11, 1996.

What public safety agencies want most is a hard deadline, so they can plan systems and decide how much to invest in upgrading their old ones, said Glen Nash, a senior telecommunications engineer with the state Department of General Services.

If communication lapses crop up again in a disaster or terrorist attack, the digital dilemma won't hold much water, he said.

"It's going to be real hard to tell the public we couldn't do it because they wouldn't buy a new TV set."