STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
Re: Implementing Public Safety Broadband Provisions of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation 
Act of 2012, PS Docket No. 12-94; Implementing a Nationwide, Broadband, Interoperable Public 
Safety Network in the 700 MHz Band, PS Docket No. 06-229; Service Rules for the 698–746, 747–
762, and 777–792 MHz Bands, WT Docket No. 06-150.
This morning’s Order takes technical rules found in Part 27 and Part 90 for the 700 MHz public 
safety broadband spectrum and consolidates them into a harmonized set of Part 90 rules.  By giving the 
private sector technical certainty and paving the way for the prompt certification of devices, today’s item 
should help the equipment market for the 700 MHz public safety band to develop and innovation to flourish.  
The end result hopefully will be a bevy of nationally portable, interoperable public safety broadband devices.
Today’s action is important.  But our duty to the nation’s first responders does not end with it.  The 
First Responder Network Authority is still getting off the ground, and we must maintain continued oversight 
over the spectrum license we have granted it.  There are also complicated issues regarding incumbent 
narrowband users in this spectrum which must be addressed.  And critically, we need to stay on course with 
our spectrum auctions so that FirstNet is adequately funded.  That means holding a successful H Block 
auction in January.  That means designing the rules of the incentive auction with an eye towards maximizing 
the net revenues produced by that auction.  And that means finding creative solutions and working 
collaboratively with federal users and the private sector to clear and auction prime spectrum like the 1755–
1780 MHz band.
I commend the staff of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau for their continued hard 
work on this and the many other proceedings necessary to meet the objectives that Congress set forth in the 
Spectrum Act.  Thanks to your efforts, I am confident that the Commission’s efforts in this area will prove 
successful.