WASHINGTON – The patient is in critical condition and turning a strange color as the ambulance makes the 90-minute drive from rural Washington County to Bangor. An emergency medical technician desperately tries to figure out how to help.

A new initiative aims to give that technician the ability to transmit medical-quality video en route, so a doctor can diagnose what’s wrong and prescribe treatment.

That is part of a multibillion-dollar White House plan to expand high-speed wireless communications access in rural areas, including a $10.7 billion effort to help foster a national public safety network, say Obama administration officials and proponents in Maine.

But as is often the case when billions of dollars and a valuable commodity are at stake, there is a battle building in Washington over how to proceed.

The plan would allocate one type of broadband spectrum, called “D Block,” purely for public safety — firefighters, police officers, ambulance personnel and other first responders.

The plan would auction other spectrums to raise money for the public safety network. The auction also aims to raise enough to reduce the deficit by $9.6 billion and provide another $5 billion nationally to increase wireless coverage in rural communities and $3 billion for researching new wireless technologies.

Broadcasters fear they’ll be penalized if they don’t voluntarily allow some of the spectrums they now control to be auctioned off to help pay for the initiative.

In perhaps the most contentious part of the debate, a coalition of wireless carriers that includes Sprint, T-Mobile and smaller rural carriers argues that it should be allowed to bid on the same spectrum the White House wants to give to public safety networks.

The coalition wants to use that spectrum to better compete with the nations’ largest carriers, Verizon and AT&T, but says it would partner with public safety forces and help build an efficient wireless network faster and more cost-effectively than would happen under Obama’s plan. The coalition calls itself Connect Public Safety Now and includes the Rural Cellular Association. But Kevin McGinnis of Hallowell, a communications technology adviser to five national emergency medical service organizations and a former Maine EMS director and ambulance service chief in Franklin County, says he and a host of other local, state and national public safety officials believe Obama’s plan is the way to go.

He charges that the coalition’s name is a misnomer. Its real goal “has nothing to do with public safety. Their whole point is they want D Block to better compete with AT&T and Verizon. They want D Block because that is prime real estate,” he said.

It will be up to Congress to decide whose side to take. Current law calls for the Federal Communications Commission to auction off the D Block, and the White House is asking lawmakers to change that plan. Already, McGinnis notes, there has been bipartisan support for Obama’s goal in legislation that predates the White House proposal, from lawmakers including Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, and John McCain, R-Ariz.

Some House Republicans, however, have indicated they are skeptical about whether the Obama plan would really raise enough money to pay for itself and reduce the deficit.

In the Maine delegation, Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud said he supports expanding broadband access to rural areas, but says while it “sounds good,” the “devil’s in the details” when it comes to whether Obama’s plan is fiscally sound.

GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe said she supports the concept of a nationwide public safety communications network, but has reservations about Obama’s plan.

“No amount of spectrum will be effective unless we also address several key areas such as adequate funding for the network, proper planning and governance to build and administer the network, and seamless coverage and interoperability to ensure undisrupted communications,” Snowe said.

Fellow Republican Sen. Susan Collins also supports the idea, but says she wants to make sure Maine’s over-the-air broadcasters aren’t hampered if the spectrum they control is auctioned.

“In an era when we can send text messages and videos around the world instantaneously, it is unacceptable that our emergency responders are sometimes unable to talk with each other on their portable radios,” said Collins, who helped create the new Office of Emergency Communications within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree notes that in addition to the public safety wireless expansion, Obama’s initiative also seeks $5 billion to help expand general wireless coverage in rural communities nationwide. That would build on work already being done in Maine using $42.5 million in federal broadband expansion stimulus money, Pingree believes.

Pingree supports giving the D Block spectrum to public safety personnel, but wants to make sure Maine broadcasters’ concerns are considered, said Willy Ritch, Pingree’s spokesman.

That $42.5 million in stimulus funding may sound like a lot, but it’s just a “drop in the bucket” in terms of what is needed in rural Maine — by first responders and local businesses, educators and families — when it comes to increased high-speed broadband coverage, including wireless, said Susan Corbett, CEO of Axiom Technologies, a Maine wireless access provider.

Axiom is using $1.4 million in stimulus money to teach Mainers how to use broadband and helping run a public safety mobile broadband project in Washington County — but the project’s ultimate success depends on access to the D Block spectrum and money with which to deploy it offered by the Obama plan, Corbett said.

“The entire state has pockets of areas with no coverage,” Corbett said. “Look at the president’s initiative as a way to start changing the numbers.”

MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind can be contacted at 791-6280 or at:

jriskind@mainetoday.com

 

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