The War on Waste: Chronicles of Waste, Fraud and Abuse

With Congress’s return there is ample opportunity for lobbyists and legislators to cause new headaches for taxpayers. One company in particular, Cyren Call, is trying to overturn one of the positive actions taken by Congress last year.  First, some history is useful.

In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted the “Consensus Plan,” which will realign the 800 MHz spectrum to separate public safety systems from the commercial systems causing interference.

• Nextel offered to reduce interference by giving up some of its localized 800 MHz spectrum, valued at $1.6 billion, in exchange for nationwide 1.9 GHz spectrum which could have fetched billions more in a public auction.

• Nextel received nearly a multi-billion windfall at the expense of taxpayers and possession of valuable spectrum coveted by other communications companies.

• Nextel has asked for a delay of up to two years to complete the 800 MHz realignment.

Now the co-founder and several former senior executives of Nextel have formed Cyren Call and are trying to take a second bite out of the taxpayers.

The digital television (DTV) provisions of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 give public safety 24MHz of prime spectrum in the valuable 700 MHz band and $1 billion in funding to help meet public safety’s needs for interoperability with the remaining 60 MHz of the spectrum to be auctioned off for taxpayers’ benefit.

• Cyren Call tried to urge the FCC to give away 30 MHz of the 60MHz to fund a commercial network that would serve public safety.  That would only benefit Cyren Call and its executives and financial backers at the expense of public safety and U.S. taxpayers.

• Rather than bidding billions of dollars at auction, Cyren Call is hoping to be paid to create this new network.

• The company claims it will make the U.S. Treasury “whole” with a funding scheme for the spectrum but the reality is that auctioning the spectrum is the law and the only way to serve taxpayers.

• The FCC rightfully rejected Cyren Call’s petition and is now looking at how best to use the 24MHz being allocated for public safety consistent with the DTV bill.  Now Cyren Call is trying to get Congress to take up its plan and undo years of work on a carefully crated compromise.

Telecommunications spectrum is an asset owned by U.S. taxpayers.  Any time this asset is given away at no charge, potential revenue is lost. Our first responders deserve to get their 24 MHz as soon as possible and taxpayers deserve the billions of dollars a spectrum auction would bring in.  Cyren Call’s proposal stands in the way of both and Congress must guard against it.