At PCWorld.com, IDG's Stephen Lawson reports that the FCC has "proposed a national radio system for various public safety agencies that would be based on advanced IP broadband technologies."

"Communication problems following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and hurricanes Katrina and Rita focused attention on the patchwork of radio systems used by different public-safety agencies in the U.S.," Lawson writes. "Not being able to communicate can hamper critical coordination among federal and local emergency responders."

The aim is to enable a public-private deal with a vendor like Cisco or Motorola to get the network going. "The spectrum would be assigned to one national licensee that could offer public-safety agencies voluntary access to a broadband service for a fee," Lawson writes. "The common network would use half of a chunk of radio spectrum 24MHz wide that is already allocated to public safety. It is in the 700MHz band, a highly prized set of frequencies that is good for communicating over long distances and penetrating walls."

The announcement is in the form of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [PDF] that seeks comments on the idea.