Frontline Wireless envisions a 4G wireless broadband network that will make advanced Internet services as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. By leveraging efficiencies of shared spectrum and network infrastructure, Frontline will empower first responders with state-of-the-art technology and liberate consumers from the "walled gardens" of the incumbent wireless providers.

Frontline has issued a comprehensive proposal to the FCC and will bid in the upcoming 700 MHz auction for spectrum that will enable the realization of this vision. Our success will bring revolutionary advances in several areas of wireless communications:

Public Safety
The Public Safety community currently depends on 20th century technology to respond to 21st century emergencies.  Frontline Wireless’s plan will ensure robust, interoperable wireless broadband communications for public safety users nationwide. Specifically, Frontline’s plan has called for:

• More spectrum. Frontline sought a doubling of the amount of 700 MHz spectrum available to Public Safety agencies in emergencies, without interfering with neighboring narrowband operations.
• Free network buildout. A hardened, robust, IP-based, “4G” national broadband network costs billions of dollars to construct, but taxpayers would not bear these costs under Frontline’s market-based approach.
• Advanced equipment. Use of “open” network standards will give public safety agencies access to a rich ecosystem of suppliers and the most advanced equipment at low cost.
• Security and control. Local agencies and jurisdictions will have complete, “unit-level” control over their secure communications flow.
• Interoperability. A flexible network architecture will enable cross-agency communications on a standing or ad-hoc basis as well as interconnection with wireless systems operating in other bands.

Open Access
The plan also will provide unprecedented freedom for consumers and public safety users in the devices and applications they can use. Through “open access” provisions, the plan promotes technological innovation and lets users connect any device to the network as long as “do no harm” safeguards are met. Much as the freedom to connect unleashed a wave of innovations in the landline telephone industry (including the fax machine, computer modem, and the first online data services), Frontline believes an open access network will create enormous economic value and growth in the wireless industry, making the wireless Internet more like the wireline Internet.

Competition
Frontline’s plans promote competition in the wireless industry with open access provisions that will foster innovation, unleash entrepreneurial forces, and lead to more and better consumer choices.  These provisions, many of which Frontline proposed to the FCC earlier this year, make the benefits of a nationwide open access network available to existing and new entrant wireless providers who find themselves locked out of roaming or other wholesale relationships with the national CMRS providers. Frontline also believes that wholesale requirements should be part of such open networks so that the network operator will, by rule, not be permitted to compete with its wholesale customers and therefore will have every incentive to bring more competition to the highly concentrated wireless industry.

All of us – first responders, wireless consumers, business leaders, and policymakers – face a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unleash competition and innovation in the 700 MHz band for both commercial and public safety users. The time has come for new ideas and investment in wireless. If given the opportunity, Frontline intends to deliver both in short order.