UTC: Broadband council excludes public utilities

The Utilities Telecom Council is objecting to the fact that no electricity, gas and water providers are represented on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Emergency Response Interoperability Centre’s Public Safety Advisory Council.

The 60-member council was appointed by the FCC as part of the effort to guide the design and buildout of a public safety emergency response network in the 700-MHz band.

In a press release prior to the council’s first meeting this week, the UTC noted that “fully one-quarter of the seats went to non-public safety interests, including commercial service and equipment providers and their associations whose only connection is their commercial interest in the networks themselves.”

When the FCC issued its National Broadband Plan almost a year ago, it recommended that utilities and public safety should jointly build, operate and maintain 700-MHz broadband networks.

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