WASHINGTON—The U.S. mobile phone industry opposes a newly unveiled plan to reserve a large block of auction-bound spectrum for a national broadband public safety network, an initiative championed by former wireless executive Morgan O’Brien and designed to bring communications interoperability to first responders frustrated by the inability to talk to each other during large-scale emergencies.
“CTIA believes this new proposal will have the unintended consequences of halting deployment of this much needed communications system,” said Steve Largent, president of the cell phone carrier association.
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Largent noted that 24 megahertz at 700 MHz already has been set aside for public safety, and $1 billion of the proceeds from the auction of frequencies in that band are earmarked by Congress to fund first-responder communications.
“A new debate would arrest the progress Congress has made in providing both the spectrum and funding that it has pledged to public safety,” Largent said. “Additionally, this new proposal would deny American consumers the benefits of the spectrum allocation and assignment, both in terms of the billions of dollars in revenue that will flow into the U.S. Treasury, as well as the delivery of new services to more than 200 million U.S. wireless consumers, many of whom rely on their wireless devices for enhanced productivity, safety and security.”
O’Brien, joined by his team of wireless industry and public safety veterans heading startup Cyren Call Communications Corp., today petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to initiate a rulemaking to reserve 30 megahertz in the upper 700 MHz band for a next-generation public safety network that would cover major metropolitan areas as well as small rural communities throughout the country.
Click here to view details of Cyren Call’s proposal. Click here to view RCR’s previous coverage of this story by Jeffrey Silva.
The FCC and Congress did not comment immediately on the Cyren proposal.
Cyren is headed by the two co-founders of Nextel Communications Inc. (now Sprint Nextel Corp.): O’Brien and Brian McAuley. The spectrum sought by Cyren is being returned by TV broadcasters as part of their transition to digital technology and is slated to be sold by January 2008. The U.S. government, currently facing a massive budget deficit, anticipates raising billions of dollars from the sale of 700 MHz licenses.
O’Brien said there is a narrow opportunity for fixing the interoperability problem, and it will be lost for good if the 30 megahertz is auctioned. He said he plans to travel around the nation to sell his idea to state and local government leaders and first responders themselves.
“There is enormous, bipartisan political support for giving America’s first responders more robust, interoperable communications tools, but until now we have not had the means,” said O’Brien. “The public sector has not had the necessary funding or spectrum to make it happen, and the private sector has not had the incentives. Under this proposal, it will no longer be a question of whether we have the means to enact change, but whether we have the will.”
O’Brien said the 24 megahertz Congress is currently considering is not contiguous and therefore would not accomplish the objective.
At a press conference this morning, O’Brien openly acknowledged his proposal is controversial and that Cyren faces a formidable challenge in changing hearts and minds on Capitol Hill and at the FCC. At the same time, he added, “Opposition is not something that I’m afraid of.”
Cyren envisions a public-private partnership with commercial operators that would underwrite network infrastructure deployment in exchange for leveraging the 700 MHz for wireless business opportunities. First responders and others would have preferential access to the 30-megahertz block during emergencies, but would otherwise occupy a very small portion of network capacity to satisfy day-to-day public-safety requirements.
Under the plan, the FCC would oversee a single licensee—known as the Public Safety Broadband Trust—with the authority to lease capacity in the 700 MHz block (747-762 MHz and 777-792 MHz) to entities responsible for helping construct the national broadband public-safety system. Cyren regards itself as the kind of experienced and qualified third party that could manage the trust, though the selection would be left to the FCC.
While Cyren offers a compelling solution to a public-safety communications interoperability problem that has eluded the FCC, Congress, the Department of Homeland Security and other governmental bodies to date, the proposal faces a number of challenges and likely will need backing from the public-safety community, wireless industry, the Bush administration and Capitol Hill to gain traction.
While CTIA was critical of the Cyren plan, rural cellular carriers appear willing to give it a hard look.
Moreover, O’Brien argues the debate his firm will ignite needs to be viewed in a broader, three-dimensional context in which spectrum is but one component.
“It’s not simply a spectrum problem. It’s a spectrum and funding problem,” said O’Brien. Indeed, safety communications requirements cannot always be consistently accommodated through sometimes erratic budget cycles of state and local governments, including those that are strapped for cash.
The U.S. government wants to auction in coming years the 700 MHz frequencies O’Brien has requested for a national broadband public safety network. The government is betting wireless, cable TV, Internet companies and others will be willing to pay billions of dollars for wireless licenses in frequencies with superb propagation characteristics. Some of the anticipated auction proceeds already have been spoken for in the form of local and federal programs requested by various lawmakers.
“Cyren recognizes that this 700 MHz spectrum has been designated in the Communications Act to be auctioned for commercial purposes. However, it believes that the public interest demands that this designation be revisited and already has committed itself to pursuing legislative relief,” stated the startup.
