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By Jeffrey Silva

WASHINGTON - 4 January 2007 - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he would cooperate with Congress if the new, Democratic-controlled House and Senate pursue legislation to increase the supply of public-safety spectrum. Chertoff acknowledged federal, state and local first responders must not only be able to talk with one other during emergencies but also need to share bandwidth-hogging data and video communications.

"Let me, for the public, try to make clear that the discussion that's being had about this greater bandwidth reflects the fact that people are talking not only now about voice communication—which is, of course, what was the issue on 9/11—but video communication and data communication, which requires much more bandwidth," said Chertoff in a question-and-answer session with reporters. Chertoff was on hand for the release of a new report showing that only a handful of U.S. cities and metropolitan areas have implemented completely interoperable public-safety communications.

"Obviously, the question of how one achieves that greater capability affects our department. It also affects other agencies of the executive branch. And we're very interested, obviously, in working with Congress, if there's a proposed piece of legislation, to look at that and evaluate what makes the most sense," Chertoff said. "I can't give you an answer in the abstract based on a theoretical piece of legislation, but of course we're always interested in specific proposals that Congress may have to move forward on this very important issue."

Chertoff's input could prove pivotal for Cyren Call Communications Corp. and some public-safety agencies. Cyren Call and others are working to find lawmakers that will sponsor legislation to reallocate half of the auction-bound 60 megahertz at 700 MHz for public-safety communications.

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By Jeffrey Silva

16 December 2006 - Each year, the RCR Wireless News editorial staff chooses the person we think has impacted the wireless industry the most during the past 12 months. This year's choice is industry veteran and Cyren Call Communications Corp. founder Morgan O'Brien. Nearly five years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, O'Brien's Cyren Call proposed a radical plan to solve public-safety interoperability issues that continue to plague first responders.

The Next Big Thing now pushed by O'Brien & Co. is as obvious as it is controversial. The idea, quite simply, is to give first responders the same level (or better) of communications capabilities taken for granted by hundreds of millions of cell-phone and Internet users every day. First responders lack the kind of fat pipe many citizens routinely access to send and receive massive amounts of multimedia data at home and work. But it's even worse than that for first responders: They cannot even talk to one another during emergencies because public-safety spectrum is a splintered mess of narrowband frequencies.

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McLean, Va. – Morgan O'Brien, Chairman of Cyren Call Communications, said that the Federal Communications Commission's decision Friday to dismiss Cyren Call's Petition for Rulemaking – while leaving the petition open for public comment -- will energize the public safety community to express its support for the plan at the FCC and before Congress.

Less than 24 hours after the FCC opened the public notice period on Monday, October 30, the commercial wireless trade association CTIA wrote a letter to the FCC urging that Cyren Call's petition be dismissed.

O'Brien's statement about the FCC's action:

"It's regrettable that the commercial wireless industry is so fearful of new solutions that they've tried to stop a public debate over how to best meet public safety's needs. But despite their best efforts, two important facts remain. First, the public may still offer comment on our proposal until November 29. And second, Congress will have the final say over how to best use this valuable spectrum resource.

"Over the past six months, the nation's leading public safety organizations have embraced the principles of our proposal, recognizing that first responders' communications challenges still haven't been solved.

"And while the wireless industry might be able to get our proposal dismissed at the FCC, no one can dismiss public safety's need for a solution. First responders around the country are sure to be upset about the FCC's action, and I expect that that anger will strengthen their determination to submit comments on our proposal and to express their support to Congress.

"Competition is strong medicine and never goes down easily. Entrenched competitors respond predictably when change is proposed, but we are more confident than ever that there is only one good solution to the crisis plaguing public safety communications. The precious spectrum resource that is crucial to the solution is a public asset and we will fight to keep it such.

"We know this plan will require congressional action. That's why we have been working with public safety leaders over the last few months in drafting legislation, and we are confident that this plan will ultimately receive strong backing from Congress."

McLean, Va. – Following a Federal Communications Commission action Monday placing on public notice Cyren Call's proposal to create a public safety wireless broadband network, company officials urged public safety, industry and government leaders to file comments on the proposal with the FCC by the November 29, 2006 deadline. Cyren Call also added it is working with public safety representatives on congressional legislation to enable the plan.

Under Cyren Call's proposal, the FCC would establish a Public Safety Broadband Trust to hold the license for a key segment of spectrum in the 700 megahertz (MHz) band, and to structure innovative arrangements for its use, placing public safety needs first but requiring commercial usage secondarily. Late Monday, the FCC's Reference Information Center released a public notice listing Cyren Call's petition and providing the public with an opportunity to comment on the proposal.

"Over the last six months, we have traveled around the country seeking support for the principles underlying our proposal from public safety, industry and government leaders," Cyren Call Chairman Morgan O'Brien said. "The next thirty days are the time for all of those leaders to formally tell the FCC what they've been saying publicly for months: a new solution is needed for public safety's communications challenges."

"Congress will have the final say over how best to use this valuable spectrum resource," O'Brien said. "Cyren Call has been working closely with public safety leaders in drafting legislation that addresses both the statutory authority of the FCC to adopt new rules as well as the budget implications of removing the spectrum from the scheduled auction. Given the strong backing that public safety has expressed for preserving this spectrum for public use, we are confident this legislation will receive significant support."

Cyren Call's proposal takes advantage of a unique, historic opportunity arising from the long-planned clearance of some of the nation's most useful frequencies, which broadcasters will vacate by 2009. Specifically, a 30 MHz block of spectrum in the 700 MHz band – presently allocated for commercial use and scheduled to be auctioned in 2008 – is ideally suited for a nationwide public safety wireless broadband network because of its distinctive physical properties.

Numerous public safety leaders and organizations have expressed their support for preserving the 30 MHz block of spectrum for public safety's use, including:

• Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO)
• National Emergency Number Association (NENA)
• International Association of Police Chiefs (IACP)
• National Association of State Emergency Medical Services Officials (NASEMSO)
• National Latino Peace Officers Association (NLPOA)
• National Troopers Coalition (NTC)
• Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police
• Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police
• North Central Texas Council of Governments
• Western Fire Chiefs Association
• New York State Association of Fire Chiefs (NYSAFC)
• Maryland Fire Chiefs Association
• Virginia Fire Chiefs Association
• Capitol Region Fire Chiefs Association (CRFCA) of Connecticut
• Southeastern Michigan Association of Fire Chiefs

Excerpts from those organizations' comments are available here.

By Donny Jackson

October 20, 2006 - The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) this week passed a resolution expressing support for the reallocation of 30 MHz of spectrum in the upper 700 MHz band to be held in trust for public safety—a notion first proposed earlier this year by Cyren Call Communications.

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By Mark Rockwell

September 22, 2006 - The FCC is moving to keep ahead of emerging alternative public safety networks, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told Congress, and it has moved to get Cyren Call's plan out for comment.

As the Senate moves to re-confirm Martin as FCC chairman this month, Senate Democrats asked him a series of questions in a behind-the-scenes exchange about a variety of telecommunications issues. Among them was a question regarding the Cyren Call and Verizon Wireless emergency responder network plans. Martin said he probably can't change the way spectrum is allocated without Congress changing the laws, but he is working to get the public's perception of the plan.

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Daily Three: Morgan O'Brien
The founder of Nextel talks about what's next with his new venture, Cyren Call.

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by Tracy Staedter, Discovery News

Sept. 11, 2006 — In the minutes, hours and even days following the disasters of 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina, rescue workers struggled with the simple task of communicating.

The problems were many and varied, but can be blamed in part on old fashioned, incompatible technology and a fragmented infrastructure.

At least two plans to update public safety communications are before the Federal Communications Commission — one from Verizon Wireless and the other from Cyren Call, founded by Morgan O'Brien, co-founder of Nextel.

Both plans propose a partnership between private and public sectors to establish a broadband wireless national network that would stimulate technological innovation to make communications compatible.

"We're, right now, at a total paradigm shift that is being driven by the wireless industry," said Ron Haraseth, director of Daytona Beach, Fl-based Automated Frequency Coordination, which provides licensing-related services for public safety.

Broadband would give tens of thousands of public safety agencies the ability to transmit text, images, files, even streaming audio and video from a disaster or crime scene.

Can You Hear Me Now?

The current system was designed with key factors in mind, but it has major drawbacks.

Most of the time, rescue workers need to speak only with other members of their team, so they use a radio channel dedicated just to them. They also need a network that won't get overloaded with calls during an emergency. So they lease radio spectrum on a local network guaranteed to be wide open at all times.

But because emergency workers use a dedicated radio channel, they usually don't know what channels other responders use. Plus, a local network devoted to local units doesn't work if those people are asked to respond to a disaster in another country or, in the case of Hurricane Katrina, another state.

Responders use two-way "walkie-talkie" radios since they need the ability for one person, such as a fire chief, to speak with many at once.

The problem is the commercial market for walkie-talkies is small compared to other devices, such as cell phones. There are about 2.5 million first responders in the United States compared to more than 200 million cell phone subscribers.

The small market drives prices sky-high. As a result, departments keep their equipment for decades. And a lack of manufacturing standards means that older systems are often incompatible with newer ones.

This kind of incompatibility, as well as channel overload, made it impossible on September 11 for police officers and firefighters in the North Tower to receive radio calls that the South Tower had collapsed, according to the 9/11 Commission Report.

National Network

A national network based on a partnership between the public and private sectors could boost public safety communication technology into the 21st century.

Both the Cyren Call and Verizon proposals deal with a coveted swath of radio spectrum being vacated by television broadcasters, who are moving to another spectrum more suitable for digital television.

Signals in this spectrum are ideal for pubic safety because they can travel up to 30 miles, can penetrate walls and can be sent and received without a direct line of sight to a tower.

The FCC has already set aside some slices of the prime spectrum for public safety use. But it plans to auction the rest for billions of dollars to commercial wireless carries.

Cyren Call, who announced their proposal last April, is trying to persuade Congress and the FCC not to auction the slices of spectrum, but to put them into a public trust.

They propose that the trust then hire a company like Cyren Call to manage it. They envision a network could be up and running by 2009.

"If they decided that they didn't need that or did not want that role to be played by us, so be it," said Morgan O'Brien, founder of Cyren Call.

According to John Melcher, executive vice president of Cyren Call, the spectrum could accommodate 60 to 70 million broadband subscribers. Nationwide, there are only 2.5 million emergency responders.

The idea is to lease the excess space to private companies. The large number of subscribers — among them the public safety workers — would presumably drive up competition and technological innovation.

Money from the leases would pay back Congress the billions of dollars it was expecting from the auction, O'Brien explains.

"The challenge in building a system is ensuring that the public safety system has the priority," said David Boyd, director of Department of Homeland Security's Office of Interoperability and Compatibility.

That could be accomplished, said Melcher, by coding the packets of digital data traveling in the signals so that emergency responders would have priority over civilians.

The unofficial Verizon Wireless plan deals with slices of spectrum already set aside for public safety. Verizon did not respond to requests for comments on the project.

Could it Work?

Cyren Call's current plan proposes coverage wherever the population density is more than five people per square mile. That equals about 99 percent of the U.S. population. Satellites, which offer slightly delayed signals, would fill in the gaps.

The small gaps in service have some emergency responders in rural areas concerned.

"If someone is out there taking shots at you, five seconds is an eternity when you're trying to get help," said Joe Peters, director of technology assistance division of the Sheriff's Association of Texas in Austin.

And according to Boyd, the biggest problem facing public safety communications is "primarily a human one."

Even if emergency groups are able to talk to each other, they'll need to come up with a common language that doesn't break down during big disasters.

The FCC plans to auction the prime spectrum in January 2008. If the public safety communications remain status quo, rescue units will continue to strive for coordinated systems. It just may take longer.

A comprehensive program known as SAFECOM run by DHS's Office for Interoperability and Compatibility estimates fully integrated systems will be in effect within twenty years.

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