FCC Puts 700 MHz Public-Safety Broadband Network on Agenda (12/14)
Cyren Call Communications may have achieved another goal in its long-range plans to build a national public/private broadband network. The FCC in its open meeting Dec. 20 will consider a ninth notice of proposed rulemaking concerning public safety communications in the 700 MHz band. The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau said the rulemaking will involve implementing a nationwide, broadband, interoperable public-safety 700 MHz, including development of operational, technical, and spectrum requirements for meeting federal, state, and local public-safety communications requirements through 2010 under WT Docket No. 96-86. Cyren Call filed its proposal with the FCC in April. The FCC put it on public notice this fall, and reply comments are due today. The company, backed by former Nextel Communications Chairman Morgan O'Brien, received 1,200 public comments supporting the plan. The FCC dismissed the proposal after putting it on public notice because the spectrum needed for the proposal is slated to be auctioned through a congressional mandate. Congress must change the current law before the 30 megahertz of spectrum requested in the proposal for the plan to move forward. However, the FCC move could indicate congressional plans to change the current law.
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