2008 Woodie Awards
Emergency broadcast network put on hold after auction fails to attract bidder
By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Nation
WASHINGTON - A congressional panel wants to know why a plan aimed at using public airwaves and private money to create a nationwide emergency communications network failed to attract any interest in an otherwise successful spectrum auction.
The House Energy and Commerce telecommunications and the Internet subcommittee yesterday was to hear from all five members of the Federal Communications Commission as well as key figures in the behind-the-scenes negotiations that failed to lead to an agreement to construct the wireless broadband network.
The recently completed auction of a portion of the public airwaves, while raising a record $19.1 billion, failed to attract a bidder to build the network.
Disasters like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, revealed limitations of the nation's emergency communications networks, like the inability of police and firefighters to communicate with one another.
Ideally, a new network would help solve the interoperability problem and avail emergency personnel of many of the advances in wireless technology that are available to commercial users.
Among the witnesses scheduled to testify is wireless industry pioneer Morgan O'Brien, a co-founder of Nextel Communications Inc., now chairman of a new company called Cyren Call. O'Brien was the first to aggressively advocate the idea of using publicly owned spectrum to lure private investors to build a national emergency network.
O'Brien's plan was shot down last year on Capitol Hill over fears it would endanger the success of the spectrum auction. O'Brien is still involved because of an agreement his company signed to act as adviser for the Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corp., a nonprofit run by safety officials that oversees the public portion of the public-private partnership.
The FCC approved the emergency communications plan last summer.
It largely incorporates a proposal developed by Frontline Wireless LLC - a company fronted by a former FCC chairman and high-tech industry investors. Frontline's concept was similar to Cyren Call's, but called for less spectrum and did not required congressional approval.
The House Energy and Commerce telecommunications and the Internet subcommittee yesterday was to hear from all five members of the Federal Communications Commission as well as key figures in the behind-the-scenes negotiations that failed to lead to an agreement to construct the wireless broadband network.
The recently completed auction of a portion of the public airwaves, while raising a record $19.1 billion, failed to attract a bidder to build the network.
Disasters like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, revealed limitations of the nation's emergency communications networks, like the inability of police and firefighters to communicate with one another.
Ideally, a new network would help solve the interoperability problem and avail emergency personnel of many of the advances in wireless technology that are available to commercial users.
Among the witnesses scheduled to testify is wireless industry pioneer Morgan O'Brien, a co-founder of Nextel Communications Inc., now chairman of a new company called Cyren Call. O'Brien was the first to aggressively advocate the idea of using publicly owned spectrum to lure private investors to build a national emergency network.
O'Brien's plan was shot down last year on Capitol Hill over fears it would endanger the success of the spectrum auction. O'Brien is still involved because of an agreement his company signed to act as adviser for the Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corp., a nonprofit run by safety officials that oversees the public portion of the public-private partnership.
The FCC approved the emergency communications plan last summer.
It largely incorporates a proposal developed by Frontline Wireless LLC - a company fronted by a former FCC chairman and high-tech industry investors. Frontline's concept was similar to Cyren Call's, but called for less spectrum and did not required congressional approval.
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