Jackson Jambalaya

The Mississippi Congressional delegation unanimously asked the Commerce Department in a letter on June 5 to allow Mississippi to activate a statewide LTE network created to transmit video and data packets between first responders. Congress passed a law in February creating FirstNet, a separate national broadband system that will perform a similar function. However, the federal government is literally years away from starting construction of FirstNet even though Congress appropriated $7 billion for the project.

The federal government prevented Mississippi from using its new LTE system despite the fact the federal government awarded Mississippi a $70 million grant in 2010 to build the network.Copy of order. Officials at the Mississippi Wireless Communications Commission told JJ the state had two years to spend or commit the funds or else it would have to repay the grant. The state spent or appropriated 70% of the grant. The state also spent an additional $17 million of its own money to be used as matching funds to build the network.

The LTE system supplements the voice-only MSWIN system. MSWIN is a land mobile radio system (LMR) created after Hurricane Katrina and covers two-thirds of the state. It allows first responders throughout the state to communicate on the same radio network* Hurricane Katrina revealed holes in the first responder network when those deployed to disaster areas used equipment that was incompatible with local networks. The dispute will not affect the voice portion of MSWIN.

The letter is addressed to Lawrence Strickland, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce. Mr. Strickland told the Wall Street Journal last week "he sympathizes with Mississippi's plight, "but we don't want to spend taxpayer money on equipment that can't be used in a few years." Earlier post. The new law created the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. NTIA resides in the Department of Commerce and is virtually non-existent. The letter states:

"On May 11, 2010, Mississippi was granted a waiver by the FCC to operate a broadband network using the public safety broadband spectrum;, and on July 30, 2010, the WCC executed a lease with the Public Safety Spectrum Trust for use of the public safety spectrum. After execution of the PSST lease, Mississippi was granted $70 million in BTOP stimulus grant funds for the deployment of a statewide public safety LTE network. Mississippi is required by statute and NTIA regulation to substantially complete its project in no more than two years and the project must be fully completed in no more than three years..."

The letter also points out the NTIA action will "block the expansion of Mississippi MED-COM, a 24/7 medically-staffed communications center" at UMC. It will support "emergency medical response agencies, hospitals, and first responders throughout Mississippi. The LTE system will allow emergency responders to transmit life-saving data to providers and hospitals.."

State Representative Scott Delano sits on the advisory board of the MWCC. He told JJ "I certainly hope someone in Washington wakes up soon to realize how irresponsible the NTIA’s recent actions are. Mississippi has invested millions of tax payer dollars to build a statewide data network and now Washington wants to deny us access to the bandwidth. This makes no sense. Our State is positioned to be one of the first states in the union to implement this type of data network (which is a complement to our statewide radio system). It would be an absolute shame for NTIA and FirstNET to not use Mississippi as a test case for developing a nationwide first responder network. At the very least, the FCC should grant our state an irrevocable wavier for use of the 700 MHZ spectrum until which time the FirstNET standards are established."

The statute does permit NTIA to grant a waiver to the state. However, the waiver is good for only six months. Officials at the MWCC said it most leases for towers are for at least five years and there was no guarantee the federal government would renew the waiver. They said Mississippi has already purchased the equipment for the system as well as had started leasing tower space.

*For example, MSWIN allows an EMT or police officer from Tupelo deployed to the Gulf Coast after a natural disaster to use his own radio equipment in that area. Editorial comment: No surprise all six members signed it. I suspect Bennie doesn't want to defend this decision to his hospitals, police and fire chiefs when they want to know why they can't turn on this network.