Sep. 26, 2006

The Federal Communications Commission plans to put the Cyren Call Communications Inc. petition out for public comment shortly.

This was revealed yesterday by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in a meeting with the Democratic members of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Cyren Call has asked Congress and the FCC to set aside 30 megahertz of spectrum in the upper 700 MHz band for a public-safety network that the wireless industry would build and share with first responders.

Cyren Call envisions a public-private partnership with commercial operators that would underwrite network-infrastructure deployments in the 700 MHz band.

First responders and others would have preferential access to the 30 megahertz during emergencies, but would otherwise occupy a very small portion of the network capacity to satisfy day-to-day public-safety requirements.

Cyren Call filed its plan with the FCC in April. The FCC has yet to act on the petition.

That appears to be changing. Following his confirmation hearing Sept. 13, Martin was sent a list of questions on a variety of issues under the FCC's purview. One of the questions regarded how the commission was handling the Cyren petition and any other like-minded proposals.

"The FCC's Reference Information Center periodically releases a public notice listing such petitions recently received by the commission, providing the public the opportunity to comment.

Cyren Call's petition should appear on the next comment public notice, which will provide the public with an opportunity to establish a record on Cyren Call's petition," said Martin.

"I would note, however, that Congress has directed the FCC to auction some of the spectrum at issue in the proposal. So—absent further congressional action—the commission may be unable to take any further action on the petition."

Martin did not explain the delay in putting the Cyren Call petition out for comment.

Martin also told lawmakers that action on a suggestion to build a public-safety network, using 12 of the 24 megahertz set aside at 700 MHz allocated to public safety as part of the transition to digital TV, would have to wait until the plan is officially submitted to the commission.

Congress has already designated 24 megahertz of the 700 MHz band for public safety; the rest is to be auctioned.

The Cyren Call plan would allocate two 15-megahertz chunks-spectrum currently scheduled to be auctioned—on either side of this 24-megahertz public-safety allocation for its public-private partnership.

Rather than use the 30 megahertz of spectrum Congress wants auctioned, the alternate plan would focus on the 24 megahertz already allocated to public safety.

Cyren Call has spent the summer lining up public-safety organizations to endorse its plan.

Cyren Call has been careful to say it does not want to touch the 24 megahertz of spectrum already allocated to public safety since many in the public-safety community think they need access to more spectrum.

Response to the Cyren Call plan has been mixed, with public-safety advocates coming out in favor of the plan and the commercial wireless industry and some lawmakers expressing opposition.

Source: RCR News