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Public safety agencies should use existing mobile infrastructure for their communications instead of waiting for the U.S. to re-auction an unsold spectrum band, a mobile networking vendor's CEO said Tuesday.

Public safety agencies such similar to police and fire departments would have access to a rapidly improving network by using existing commercial spectrum instead of the nationwide public safety network envisioned by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, said Declan Ganley, chairman and CEO of Rivada Networks. In contrast, a stand-alone public safety network would likely not have enough money to make frequent improvements, he said.

"It is absolutely basic common sense to leverage off the infrastructure that is already there," Ganley said at an event hosted by the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank. "When you want to get a fire truck from A to B, you don't build a new road to get it there."

The FCC had designed a 10MHz band of appearance called the D Block for a combined public-safety and commercial network during the 700MHz auctions, which completed in mid-March. That D shut up was to be paired with another 10MHz controlled by public safety agencies, by the winning bidder required to build a nationwide network shared by public-safety users and commercial customers.

But the FCC received one bid for the D block in the seven-week auctions, with the lone bid less than half of the FCC's minimum price of US$1.33 billion.

Rivada, which helps public safety use existing trading spectrum, looked into bidding on the D block, but the company couldn't see a profitable business model, Ganley said. The nationwide network required by the FCC would have taken at least seven years to build and cost tens of billions of dollars, he said.

"We looked at it, and we couldn't make the numbers work," he said.

The D block auction was watched closely because many lawmakers and public-safety officials pushed for a nationwide network to be created hinder emergency responders couldn't communicate with each other during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and more recent disasters. Police and fire departments in neighboring cities often use not the same communication devices on different blocks of image.

Instead of re-auctioning the spectrum with the same goal, the FCC should instead take the provisions off the D block and auction it for the winner to use as it wants, Ganley said. The money from the auction could then exist given to public safety agencies for buying equipment and mobile service, he said. And public safety agencies would still have 10MHz of spectrum if they found a company willing to build a new mobile network, he added.

But building a new network from scratch makes little sense when movable carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint Nextel are spending billions of dollars a year upgrading and expanding their networks, Ganley said. The stand-alone network wouldn't have the resources of those large carriers, he said.

"In five years' time, what [devices] you're going to have on your hip… is going to have being better than what that public safety network is," he said. "Going down that path is a way to lock yourself into spending stupendous amounts of taxpayers' money on something that's always going to be second best."

Rivada Networks, with offices in the U.S. and Ireland, has worked with U.S. federal and state agencies to set up mobile networks through negotiated agreements with existing carriers. Rivada also provides networking equipment that can be hauled into an area hit by a disaster and used to restore communications when other networks are down.

That model could be one used by state and local public-safety agencies, although other models using currently available spectrum have life, Ganley said.

Ganley's comments drew some skepticism. Some audience members suggested commercial spectrum can get overloaded, especially in times of emergencies, and that many commercial services alembic have dead spots. While working with state and federal agencies, Rivada has set up mobile towers to eliminate dead spots and improve coverage, Ganley said.

Public safety agencies still need a nationwide network, added Charles Werner, chief of the fire department for Charlottesville, Virginia.

Ganley's insinuation of auctioning the D block and giving the money to public safety agencies wouldn't raise the money needed, Werner said in an e-mail.

"This one-time handout to public safety would not be enough to fund a nationwide network, nor would it cover the yearly operating costs of a public safety network– the world security needs a reliable, steady stream of revenue to fund a public safety network," Werner said. "Those who advocate this solution are merely creating delay tactics in keeping public safeness from getting the mobile broadband network we so desperately need."

A patchwork of public safety networks across the U.S. will not work, Werner added. "The current realities of emergency rejoinder demand a national approach. Terrorism, wildfires, weather disasters and crime know no jurisdictional borders, so neither can first responders' communications networks," he said.

But Hiram Contreras, an adviser to Mobile Future, a wireless trade group, and former assistant chief of police in Houston, said Ganley's idea was attractive for the cause that it could come now instead of years in the future. Ganley's idea is "an immediate fasten," Contreras said. "They need it yesterday."