"I'm concerned," began a genuinely concerned looking United States Senator Clara McCaskill during yesterday's Senate hearing on the DTV transition. "As of fairly recent data from Nielsen and the broadcasters, one in five Missourians is getting over the air signal right now."

That means that after February 17th, 2009, their "over the air"—or analog—signals will no longer work in a 100 percent digital broadcasting environment.

"This scares me. Politically," the Democrat from Missouri continued. "I mean, there is no anger that comes close to the anger of an American who can't get television. And I know who they're going to blame. They're not going to call you. They're going to call me. And they're going to be mad."

McCaskill was talking to John Kneuer of the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA), the government agency that, in tandem with the Federal Communications Commission, is supposed to educate consumers about the big change, especially low income, elderly, and rural Americans.

The problem is rising wireless prices due to an increasingly concentrated telecommunications sector, Reed Hundt told FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein during a meeting on Friday, June 22nd.

The solution, at least for public safety broadband, is an "E-block" licensee that stewards about 12 MHz of the 700 band.

Hundt's company, Frontline Wireless, wants the FCC in its upcoming 700 MHz auction to sell off this chunk of spectrum with one proviso: that the winner, which Frontline hopes will be itself, will be required to use the space to build an open access, national public safety broadband communications network.

Public safety spectrum distributors around the country—for fire, medical, police, and emergency—will be able to tap into the E-block at wholesale rates, according to the Frontline plan.

Hundt came to his meeting with Adelstein armed with a Powerpoint presentation that presents a disturbing snapshot of the wireless universe:

• Four national firms have captured most of the wireless market: Cingular (owned by AT&T), Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon.
• But only two firms dominate the wireless landscape; A&T and Verizon, which together control over 50 percent of all wireless subscriptions, about 120 million customers.
• As a consequence, the market has become "highly concentrated," according to measurement standards used by the U.S. Department of Justice.
• Wireless monthly rates have steadily risen since 1998, from an average bill of $40 a month then to $50 now. Verizon and AT&T charge the highest prices: 7 cents and 6.5 cents a minute, respectively.

Frontline charges that when it comes to making rules for the upcoming 700 MHz auction, AT&T and Verizon "aim to warehouse spectrum [buy spectrum just to keep it away from others], especially 700 MHz low frequency licenses, to block competitors."

The upstart firm also predicts that AT&T and Verizon will "support any public policy (e.g., large license sizes, open bidding that allows them to use their scale to advantage." Blind bidding systems prevent big competitors from colluding with each other on prices.

The man who once famously called television "just another appliance" and "a toaster with pictures" has signed up with a major player in the FCC's 700 MHz wireless auction proceeding.

Mark Fowler served as Ronald Reagan's Federal Communications Commission Chair from 1981 through 1987. During his tenure Fowler oversaw the massive deregulation of the broadcasting industry and the rise of cable television.

Now he has joined Frontline Wireless, a prominent participant in the FCC's proceeding on rules for the agency's upcoming auction of the 700 MHz band, sold off as TV stations vacate the region and take up digital signals.

But even Fowler concedes that the FCC will need to attach some "smart regulations" to the sale.

Regulation has "a legitimate role," Fowler asserted in a Frontline press release issued yesterday, "to move the U.S.—including first responders—to a wireless broadband society."

Frontline proposes that about 12 MHz of the 700 band, the so called "E-Block," be auctioned off on the proviso that the winner use the space to build an open access national public safety broadband communications network.

Reading Cisco Systems Inc.'s comments endorsing the Federal Communications Commission's proposal for a nationwide, public safety communications network run by a single entity, one could get the impression that the IP hardware giant has a candidate in mind for the job. To wit, paragraph two, sentence one of the February 26th filing:

"Since its inception in 1984, Cisco has been the world's leading manufacturer of Internet Protocol ('IP') networking equipment and IP communications hardware and software, and the company has a long record of developing new technologies to serve the communications needs of the public safety community."

Sentence two: "Cisco has developed mobile wireless routers used in first responder vehicles, and has crafted wireless solutions from its 802.11 product set to deliver broadband services to public safety."

Sentence three: "Cisco's engineers are continually developing innovative IP networking technologies and industry-leading products in its core areas of routing and switching, including wireless broadband equipment and advanced technologies in IP telephony and other IP-enabled services."

To be fair, the rest of the brief offers a pretty reasoned case for the FCC's plan, with an occasional product placement ad slipped in.

An international consulting firm has called the Federal Communication Commission's proposed public safety network "so fraught with uncertainties, problems, and the potential for conflict" that it is unlikely to perform as intended.

RCC Consultants' 126 page critique of the FCC's Ninth Notice on the 700 MHz Band says that one of the central points of the proposal—letting the network lease broadband spectrum to commercial companies—goes against Federal law.

The FCC plan fails "to establish broadband services that have as their sole or principal purpose the protection of life, health or property;" RCC's February 15th filing charges. The firm provides wireless support to state and local governments.

It will operate almost 250 video and broadband channels, and be allowed to access hundreds more under certain conditions. It will allow thousands public safety agencies to exchange data about weather emergencies and potential terrorist attacks. It will enable police agencies to exchange mug shots, fingerprints, and share real-time video monitoring of emergency or potentially criminal situations.

And it will be run by a commercial entity that charges on a fee-for-service basis, even permitted to market spectrum to other companies "through leases or in the form of public/private partnerships."

On December 20th the Federal Communications Commission issued a Ninth Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on how to use the 700 MHz band for public safety purposes.

"We believe that the time may have come for a significant departure from the typical public safety allocation model the Commission has used in the past," the Notice argues.