Public safety officials and U.S. lawmakers have been calling for a nationwide mobile broadband network since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., during which the multiple public safety agencies responding to the attacks couldn't talk to each other.

"This is important," Genachowski said recently. "We have gone too long with little progress to show for it. The private sector simply is not going to build a nationwide, state-of-the-art, interoperable broadband network for public safety on its own dime."

Critics of the plan have said the FCC's cost estimates aren't close to realistic. A dedicated network using specialized wireless communicators would cost much more, said David Kahn, CEO of Covia Labs, a company that using existing mobile devices to create interoperable networks.

"If they decide to make their own first responder network, the cost is going to be five times what they say it will be," Kahn said.

The FCC seems to be headed in a slightly different direction, with the public safety network piggybacking on existing networks.