By EMS1 Staff
WASHINGTON — Firefighters are being urged to take part in a national call-in day today to help make reallocation of the D-Block to public safety a reality.
The September 22 call-in initiative is being organized by the Public Safety Alliance, whose leadership will be meeting on the issue with congressional and administration officials this week.
The Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act of 2010 establishes a regulatory process and structure to allocate an additional 10 MHz of communications spectrum (the D-Block) directly to public safety rather than auctioning the spectrum to the private sector.
Writing in TheSecretList, Chief Billy Goldfeder said the act sets aside funding from other auction proceeds to construct a nationwide, interoperable mobile wireless broadband network hardened to public safety requirements.
“This will improve our nation’s firefighters, EMTs and police officers with new communications technologies that are urgently needed,” he said.
“The fire service is very close to successful legislation that will help to build a Nationwide Public Safety Wireless Broadband Network, which will transform emergency communications forever.”
You can make your voice heard by calling your senators today and asking them to co-sponsor the Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act of 2010 (S. 3756).
Call 202 224-3121 and ask to be transferred to your senator’s office. If you don’t know who your senators are, you can find the details at www.congress.org.