[W1SMH] information

[EnviroCop1 at aol.com]

    As expected, President George  W. Bush yesterday signed
budget-reconciliation legislation that  includes a firm date for TV
broadcasters to clear 700 MHz spectrum and  $1.2 billion in funding
earmarked for public-safety  communications.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted  216-214 to approve
the budget package, which requires broadcasters to  clear the 700 MHz
airwaves on Feb. 17, 2009, after which 24 MHz of  frequencies will be
allocated nationwide to public safety. Other  airwaves in the band will
be auctioned to commercial operators in a  bidding process expected to
generate $10 billion in additional revenue  for the government.
Under previous law, broadcasters tentatively were  targeted to clear
the 700 MHz band by the end of this year, but they  were not required
to do so until 85% of all U.S. television sets could  receive digital
signals—a threshold that could take decades to reach,  according to
many analysts.
Some public-safety officials previously  had expressed hope that first
responders might receive more than the 24  MHz of airwave earmarked,
but enacting the budget measure effectively  ends such discussion, said
Harlin McEwen, chairman of the International  Association of Chiefs of
Police communications and technology  committee.
"All the spectrum that is not going to public safety is  ready to be
auctioned, so it is highly unlikely [that more frequencies  would be
dedicated to public safety]," McEwen said.
In addition to  allocating spectrum to public safety, the law creates a
$1 billion  grant program to pay for public-safety interoperable
communications  systems, $156 million for national alert and tsunami
warning systems  and $43.5 million to help fund E-911 upgrades as
called for in the  Enhance 911 Act passed in 2004.
Most of the $10 billion in expected  auction proceeds will be used to
reduce budget deficits and to fund a  program designed to provide
people with analog TV sets low-cost  converters that will let them
receive digital  broadcasts.