Propose a national safety net in the U.S. broadband

Federal regulators recommend that Congress enact a program of grants to finance a national wireless broadband that allows police, firefighters and other emergency workers communicate.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed 16,000 to 18,000 million dollars in grants over ten years. Julius Genachowski its director said Thursday that the proposal would form part of the national broadband plan of the agency. That plan, which must submit to Congress next month, will propose the means to carry high-speed connections to the Internet to all Americans.

The proposed public safety network would use the wireless spectrum that was freed when TV broadcasts last year went from analogue to digital.