WASHINGTON—Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House telecom and Internet subcommittee, has come out against a new proposal to preserve a large chunk of 700 MHz spectrum for a national broadband public safety network.
“The DTV [digital TV] bill which Congress recently passed will clear 24 MHz of spectrum for critically important public safety interoperable communications, provide $1 billion for new public safety radios, enable the auctioning of valuable spectrum for new wireless services for consumers all across America, and bring in billions of dollars to the federal treasury from those auctions. The Cyren Call proposal threatens to undermine that equation, and for this reason I oppose it,” said Upton.
Cyren Call Communications Corp. yesterday petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to set aside 30 megahertz—on top of the 24 megahertz already designated for public safety—for a next-generation public safety system that would be built by industry and shared with police, firefighters and medics around the country.
Morgan O’Brien, chairman of Cyren Call and co-founder of Nextel Communications Inc. (now Sprint Nextel Corp.), said the 24 megahertz public safety is due to receive will not support advanced capabilities—including interoperability—that a contiguous 30 megahertz block would.
Large mobile phone carriers oppose the Cyren Call plan. Rural cellular carriers said they want to consider the initiative.
