Sep 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Donny Jackson

Board members vote for regional 700 MHz licenses option

With the FCC expected to establish new rules for the 700 MHz D Block spectrum this month, the Public Safety Spectrum Trust will pursue regional commercial partners and has altered its financial relationship with adviser Cyren Call Communications.

After the failure of the D Block to attract a qualifying bid earlier this year after being auctioned as a nationwide license, representatives of wireless carriers repeatedly have expressed doubt that a bidder would emerge from another auction if the 10 MHz of spectrum is offered on a nationwide basis with public-safety obligations. Industry observers have noted that none of the existing nationwide carriers are inclined to make such a move and regional carriers lack the resources to do so.

With this in mind, PSST board members last month voted unanimously to pursue the option of regional D Block licenses, which could make the economics of the proposed public/private partnership to build and maintain a 700 MHz wireless broadband network for public safety more palatable to commercial operators.

PSST Chairman Harlin McEwen said the PSST remains steadfast that the 10 MHz of public-safety broadband spectrum remain a nationwide license — currently held by the PSST — and still would prefer a nationwide D Block licensee, but the board supported consideration of regionalized commercial licenses, he said.

While most agree that regional licensees would make the proposed public/private partnership more feasible to commercial partners, there have been concerns that such a model could result in technological incompatibility and make negotiations with the PSST so complex that it might be difficult to realize the desired nationwide broadband service for public safety.

Others have feared that more highly populated regions would receive bids in an auction, but more rural areas would not, potentially leaving large areas of the country without a commercial partner to build out a 700 MHz network for public safety. McEwen acknowledged that these issues exist, saying “that's what we'll have to work on” to make a regionalized commercial D Block plan viable.

At the same August meeting, the PSST board also voted to reduce the total amount of money it could borrow from Cyren Call from $12 million to $6 million.

“We have scaled back our financial relationship with Cyren because we don't have any money to pay them with,” McEwen said.

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