More than 1300 comment on Cyren Call proposal

Responses from hundreds of public-safety supporters were among the more than 1300 comments filed with the FCC by Wednesday’s deadline regarding the controversial Cyren Call Communications proposal to reallocate 30 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum for a public-private partnership to construct a nationwide wireless broadband network.

More than 90% of the initial comments filed in the public-notice proceeding expressed support for the concept proposed by Cyren Call, according to a press statement released by the company led by Chairman Morgan O’Brien, co-founder of former Nextel Communications.

“The scars from 9/11 and Katrina with the American public run deep,” O’Brien said in the statement. “When combined with a dawning realization that the needs of public safety currently come last, not first, in our nation’s regulatory agenda, Congress will hear a roar that something needs to be done.”

While the vast majority of the favorable comments were generated through a user-friendly interface found on Cyren Call’s web site, public-safety groups such as the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and others provided more detailed supporting filings.

“There is a real big interest, because people realize that this is our last shot at really being able to take advantage of broadband technology,” Harlin McEwen, chairman of the IACP's communications and technology committee, said in an interview with MRT. “Without additional spectrum, what we have—and the way it’s done—just isn’t enough to be able to do what we really need to do to have a national network.”

Most of the opposing comments came from commercial wireless carriers, some of which stated their belief that the comment period should have ended when the FCC dismissed the rulemaking proceeding just days after initiating the public-notice comment period.

One public-safety entity expressing opposition to the plan was the Region 24 700 MHz Planning Committee in Missouri. Written by chairperson Steve Devine, the Region 24 filing expressed support for the Access Spectrum proposal to give commercial operators bidding credits in an auction if they also serve public safety’s needs.

Region 24 also noted concerns that the public safety broadband trust that would oversee the Cyren Call plan would not serve the needs of local entities, which generally are still undecided about the best use of the 700 MHz spectrum already earmarked for public safety.

“Region 24 feels the Cyren Call proposal, as provided, does not represent adequately the needs of the local public-safety community in Missouri and chooses instead to obtain public safety concurrence and support for such an endeavor from national, non-user public safety representatives with the potential cost of leaving members of the local first responder community under-represented,” the filing states.

Motorola, the largest vendor serving both the commercial carrier and public-safety markets, took no position on the matter.

Reply comments in the proceeding must be submitted by Dec. 14, according to Cyren Call.