During a hearing of the Senate’s Commerce Committee on disaster preparedness, its Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) put in a plug for his bill to allocate the D-Block of spectrum to public safety for a national interoperable broadband communications network. He asked Bob Ryan, a Washington state meteorologist who has been credited with saving lives due to his decision to stay on the air delivering relevant data, if that would be a good idea. Ryan, answered that anything that helped emergency managers better communicate and prepare for, or respond to, natural or man-made disasters to better serve the public would be a good idea.
The bill hinges on some broadcasters giving up some of their spectrum, which will be auctioned to help pay for the network, which broadcasters have argued could negatively impact their ability to continue to provide life-saving emergency information. Ryan made the point that broadcasters are an integral part of the emergency warning system, and that even with advances in mobile communications and laptops and the rest, viewers still turn to TV to see a trusted person to help them make that life-saving decision.
