WASHINGTON-A bold plan to take a large swath of spectrum off the auction block and devote the valuable airwaves to a national broadband public-safety network-one having interoperability capabilities missing before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks-ran smack up against opposition from large mobile-phone carriers and a key lawmaker last week.
Controversy is nothing new to Morgan O’Brien, co-founder of Nextel Communications Inc. (now part of Sprint Nextel Corp.) and introduced last Thursday as chairman of Cyren Call Communications Inc. The other co-founder of Nextel, Brian McAuley, who worked with O’Brien in cobbling together small slices of radio dispatch frequencies to turn Nextel into a major wireless power when a cellular duopoly market existed in the late 1980s, is again at O’Brien’s side to try to do the impossible.
Cyren Call, a startup collection of former wireless and public-safety veterans, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to reserve 30 megahertz in the upper 700 MHz band for a next-generation public-safety network that industry would build and share with first responders throughout the country.
The spectrum Cyren Call wants is mandated by Congress to be auctioned by January 2008, and is the product of a long, bitter campaign on Capitol Hill to force TV broadcasters-as part of their transition to digital technology-to return a massive amount of 700 MHz radio channels sought by public-safety, mobile-phone carriers and Internet companies.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the 60 megahertz at 700 MHz-including the 30 megahertz requested by Cyren Call-could generate between $10 billion and $15 billion for the U.S. Treasury. Some of the anticipated auction receipts already have been earmarked for a variety of programs, including $1 billion for public-safety communications interoperability.
As such, Cyren Call faces an enormous challenge in trying to convince Congress, the FCC and the Bush administration, beset with a huge budget deficit, to unravel legislation freeing up 700 MHz spectrum for public-safety and commercial wireless communications. Public safety is guaranteed by law to receive 24 megahertz of the total amount of spectrum surrendered by TV broadcasters. That 24 megahertz is next to the 30 megahertz at 700 MHz eyed by Cyren Call.
O’Brien, while acknowledging the uphill battle in Congress and at the FCC, said the task of fixing the public-safety interoperability problem remains. He said the opportunity to resolve the communications glitch will be lost for good if the FCC auctions the 30 megahertz. O’Brien said he wants to incite broad debate in the nation’s capital and outside the Beltway on the Cyren Call plan, and that he plans to travel around the country to sell the company’s proposal to state and local government leaders and first responders.
“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.”
A major stake holder in the debate-the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officers International Inc.-has reserved judgment on the Cyren Call plan until the group can analyze it further.
“It’s a very interesting idea. We’re looking at it,” said Robert Gurss, director of legal and government affairs for APCO.
Mobile-phone heavyweights were far less circumspect about Cyren Call’s proposal.
CTIA, the trade group representing the nation’s largest cell-phone carriers, came down hard on the Cyren Call plan.
“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, referring to the public-safety network that will utilize the 24 megahertz at 700 MHz. “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.”
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House telecom and Internet subcommittee, agreed.
“The DTV [digital TV] bill, which Congress recently passed, will clear 24 megahertz 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.”
O’Brien maintains the 24 megahertz of public safety-dedicated spectrum is not contiguous and therefore will not do the job.
O’Brien added that he welcomes the debate. “Opposition is not something that I’m afraid of,” he remarked.
Rural cellular carriers, which lack the financial means to compete with national cellular carriers at spectrum auctions, said they are willing to consider Cyren Call’s initiative.
“We believe it is an innovative, provocative proposal that deserves thoughtful consideration” said Thomas Walsh, president of the Rural Cellular Association. “While RCA hasn’t yet taken a position on this plan, we hope others in industry will join us in that discussion.”
Walsh added, “It would be unfortunate for the public to jump to conclusions about this proposal without taking the time to study the filing. We believe that wireless carriers need to make every reasonable effort to work with public-safety organizations to provide a nationwide network that is available to respond to catastrophes and the daily emergency needs of all citizens.” RCA is represented by a law firm that helped prepare the Cyren Call petition filed at the FCC.
Even those who harbor doubts about whether O’Brien can pull off his grand plan, caution against immediately counting the maverick wireless pioneer out. O’Brien, while at then-Nextel, worked on a complex plan ultimately approved by federal regulators to stop interference from Nextel to 800 MHz public-safety radio systems.
“It’s an audacious proposal that will certainly stir things up. [O’Brien’s] biggest obstacle is that he needs to get Congress to pass legislation before the auction they just scheduled for January 2008. Time is not on his side. And I don’t believe this particular proposal will be adopted, but I also don’t believe it’s the final proposal we’ll hear from him,” said wireless analyst Rebecca Arbogast, a vice president at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co Inc. Stifel has business relationships with major wireless carriers and other large telecom companies.
Cyren Call 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 Call 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 Call 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 likely will need backing from the public-safety community and others to gain traction.
