Since 9/11, efforts have been made to improve communications systems for first responders.  The lack of interoperability among public safety agencies and interference from commercial use of the same spectrum must be resolved.  However, spectrum is an asset to the federal government and should be managed wisely with the best return on investment for taxpayers.

In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted the “Consensus Plan,” which realigned 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 as much as $7 billion in public auction.

• Nextel received nearly a $5 billion windfall at the expense of taxpayers and possession of valuable spectrum coveted by other communications companies

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 gives public safety 24 MHz of prime spectrum in the valuable 700 MHz band and $1 billion in funding to meet public safety’s needs for interoperability with the remainder of the spectrum to be auctioned off for profit.

• Cyren Call has petitioned the FCC to abandon this carefully crafted agreement and instead give away 30 MHz free to an unspecified group of federal, state and local officials, who would then hire a private company to build a for-profit network. 

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

Cyren Call claims its network will be defined and built by 2009 and be interoperable with existing technology, however:

• Much of the technology for such a system does not yet exist, and may not for as much as 10 years. 

• The company claims the cost will be $25 billion, but industry experts say it would be at least double that amount. 

• Accepting Cyren’s plan would also freeze out any innovations in communications systems that might come along by the time Cyren is finished with its system. 

Telecommunications spectrum is an asset owned by the federal government.  Anytime this asset is given away at no charge, taxpayers lose potential revenue.  Cyren Call is trying to take away this potential revenue to put in their own pockets.

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.