Reconstituted High Tech DTV Coalition Fights Cyren Call

The reformulated DTV Coalition, a factor in passage of the law fixing a hard date for the transition, one by which the 700 MHZ auction should start and dedicating 24 MHz to public safety use, is officially back, largely to fight the Cyren plan. The group rehired lobbying firm Ryan, Phillips, Utrecht & MacKinnon and plans to hold meetings on the Hill. They'll be jousting with Cyren Call’s crew, which includes Wexler & Walker and Fritts Group, run by former NAB Pres. Eddie Fritts.

Some players have changed since the coalition formed. Gone: AT&T, OPASTCO, IBM and TechNet. Verizon Wireless and CTIA, leading the fight against Cyren Call, are in as new members. CEA helped underwrite the economic study.

Coalition members warned Tues. at a press conference that the long-awaited auction is threatened if Congress alters the 24 MHz allocation of spectrum allocated to public safety. Coalition members noted that the FCC would have to redo much of the work it has already completed on rules for the upcoming auction, expected to start later this year and which must begin under the law by Jan. 28, 2008. Chmn. Martin indicated in Jan. the auction could start as early as Aug.

Changing the rules now would “destroy the carefully crafted compromise Congress reached” in the DTV transition bill, which cleared Congress last year (CD Feb 2 2006 p1), the group said.

“You don’t push a button and hold an auction the next day,” Jeffrey Eisenach of Criterion, author of the economic study, said: “When the FCC is auctioning off in this case $15 billion worth of spectrum, there is a tremendous amount of planning, effort and energy that goes into that on the FCC side… and on the part of the people who are going to spend the $15 billion.”

Rhett Dawson, pres. of ITI, said if Congress agrees with Cyren it could keep the 700 MHz auction from occurring. “You could have the broadcasters getting back into the game and wanting their piece,” Dawson said: “The potential for mischief here is just unbounded.”

The coalition letter, to Commerce Committee Chmn. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and ranking member Stevens (R-Alaska), demands that Congress stick with the Feb. 17, 2009, hard date for the DTV transition. It also says Congress should “ensure” the FCC issues a single national license to a public safety licensee to offer broadband within the 24 MHz allocation.

The Criterion study argues that public safety, especially once it has the promised 24 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum, will have more than enough spectrum for a national wireless broadband network. The report lists 23.2 MHz of spectrum already set aside for public safety under 1 GHz, with another 24 MHz on the way. With 4.9 GHz and other spectrum set aside for its use, that means safety agencies have access to 99.7 MHz, the report said.

“Public safety has been allocated spectrum that exceeds the spectrum holdings of any U.S. wireless operator, including Cingular (which averages 52 MHz nationwide), Verizon (which averages 40 MHz nationwide), Sprint Nextel (which averages 50 MHz of cellular/PCS spectrum and approximately 70-80 MHz of BRS spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band), and T-Mobile (which averages 25 MHz nationwide),” the report said: “Yet, it currently uses 20 percent or less of this spectrum for the operation of emergency communications systems.”

Cingular, the report said, averages 1 million subscribers per 1 MHz of spectrum and Verizon Wireless almost 1.3 million. With the 24 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum first responders are to get, the sector will average 19,057 users per MHz.

Relying on call assigned slot networks with a limited number of slots, safety agencies “traditionally used spectrum inefficiently,” the report said, noting that such architecture “greatly limits both the capacity of public safety systems and the ability of these systems to support high data rates.”

“Commercial wireless networks, whose owners pay for their spectrum and thus have incentives to use it wisely, have taken a different approach,” the report said. “There is no reason that new broadband networks for public safety cannot be built using modern architectures, thus allowing public safety communications networks to take advantage of similar capacity and efficiency gains.”

Harlin McEwen, who represents public safety groups on spectrum issues, voiced disappointment at the coalition’s stance. “My quick review of the report that the Coalition paid Criterion Economics to prepare is that it is full of false assumptions and innuendo and as far as I know the authors have little or no background in public safety communications,” McEwen said.

“We disagree with both the conclusions and the analysis in the High Tech DTV Coalition study, which appears to be little more than the views of paid economic consultants, lacking any knowledge of public safety radio communications,” said Robert Gurss, dir. of legal and govt. affairs for the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials.