Cyren Call Says It Can’t Continue Unpaid D-Block Role

Cyren Call raised two matters not covered in a Sept. 25 rulemaking notice on a proposed new auction of the 700 MHz D block in recent meetings at the commission, it said. The company said in a filing that the notice, which proposes to limit the trust to $5 million in annual reimbursement, doesn’t address existing trust debt. The FCC has proposed to adopt limits on PSST funding sources and hasn’t indicated how it intends to help the trust pay what it owes, Cyren Call said.

The cap proposed by the FCC on trust financing would leave trust debts unpaid for years. Cyren Call asked the FCC for assurances that the trust can make monthly payments larger than those now made, under commission supervision. Otherwise, the company said, it can’t keep raising money for the trust. Cyren Call said it met with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Public Safety Bureau Chief Derek Poarch and Angela Giancarlo, adviser to Commissioner Robert McDowell, among others at the agency.

The FCC faces the worst financial climate in more than 50 years as it readies another auction of the band, Cyren Call said. Cyren Call founder Morgan O'Brien represented the company at the meetings with FCC officials.

The PSST, meanwhile, asked the FCC to double to $10 million a $5 million annual cap on what it’s paid to perform its duties. The trust wants a one-time payment of $10 million to cover current debt. Until the auction results make clear how many D-Block licensees there will be, the PSST is hard-pressed to be specific about its funding needs, it said. The trust said the Commission should take care not to hobble the PSST by setting a funding cap below what the trust may need.

The trust, in a broader filing on D-block rules, voiced strong concern that the revised rules proposed by the FCC would block it from monitoring the network and its performance for users. Implementing the FCC proposals could keep the PSST from being able to ensure public safety needs are met, the trust said.

The trust questioned why the FCC seeks unprecedented oversight of PSST internal and external activities in its partnership role but not the activities of its D Block partner or partners. The trust also said that as written the rules have its only roles as negotiating a network sharing agreement and reviewing periodic reports on the agreement from the D-block licensee.

The PSST also asked the FCC to allow the three members of its executive committee to serve out their two-year terms, which end next November, and not to make the group separate the roles of CEO and chairman until it receives funding.

Meanwhile, APCO said in separate comments filed at the FCC that most of the proposals in the rulemaking notice make sense - but some tip too far toward commercial concerns, potentially undermining the broadband network capacity to serve state and local public safety agencies.

APCO questioned the FCC’s decision to charge each user of a national public safety network a flat monthly fee of $48.50. There’s no substantial basis for the sum, based on what a few public safety bodies pay for access to commercial broadband networks, APCO said. “A better approach is to require the D-block licensee to offer rates at a specified discount from commercial rates and that at no time should any customer ever receive a rate lower that what is offered to public safety.” The rate must be low enough to “attract substantial public safety participation,” the group said. APCO said the D-block licensee should pay a “substantial” lease fee to use the spectrum, which could subsidize local usage rates, or provide reduced fees to public-safety users.

The FCC should allow users in critical infrastructure industries access to the public-safety network, APCO said. “An overly narrow interpretation of eligibility could exclude some critical governmental services,” the group said. APCO wants the FCC to make more changes to the rules for the Public Safety Broadband Licensee so it has the expertise, experience and diversity need to represent public-safety interests. A possible change would be making the National Regional Planning Council a member of the PSBL instead of the National Emergency Management Association, APCO said.

APCO and the PSST agreed that the buildout requirements should go beyond those in the notice. The FCC proposes to extend the timetable to 15 years from the 10 proposed for the first D-block auction. It also lowered the buildout levels, especially for less populous areas. APCO and the PSST agreed that the original requirement that the D-block licensee serve 99.3 percent of the population within 10 years was too strict. But both said the revised plan isn’t tough enough. “The PSST believes that the proposed reductions are too substantial,” the trust said. “The reductions likely will result in a network that does not provide public safety with coverage any more extensive than existing commercial networks’ coverage the public safety community already made clear is inadequate to address ubiquitous public safety requirements.”

Motorola told the FCC it doubts any carrier will build a public safety network as proposed. Congress must step in and provide money, the equipment maker said: “Motorola continues to be concerned that such a network -- one that both satisfies the economic realities of a commercially viable system and adequately provides for the needs of public safety -- will not become a reality absent government funding.”