By JOHN DUNBAR
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Harlin McEwen says his grandchildren are able to communicate in a more technologically advanced way than are most of the nation’s police and firefighters, and that concerns him. A former police chief in New York state with 47 years of law enforcement experience, McEwen is an advocate for a radical plan that would build 37,000 transmitter towers across the U.S. to create a broadband network for first responders in disasters.
“My kids, my grandchildren can send pictures to each other and do things with their cell phones that I can’t do in public safety in a way that’s reliable,” said McEwen, now vice chairman of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council.
Trying to address that communications problem has sparked a battle between a cell phone industry pioneer who came up with the network idea and industry groups that contend the plan is risky and will only benefit its investors.
The issue of emergency communications was the subject of congressional hearing scheduled for Thursday. The witness list before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee included the man behind the plan, Morgan O’Brien, and a chief opponent of the concept, former Rep. Steve Largent, R-Okla., who heads the leading wireless communications lobbying group.
O’Brien is chairman of a new company called Cyren Call. He was a co-founder of Nextel Communications Inc., which is now Sprint Nextel Corp.
He is proposing that Congress allocate a huge block of the publicly owned airwaves for the new network.
The Cyren Call plan would require the same level of investment required in building a nationwide wireless network, with the added requirement that it be disaster-proof. The company estimates it would take 10 years to build and cost $17 billion. It would also require a backup satellite system.
Who will develop and pay for the hardware needed by police and firefighters wanting to use the new network? That is an open question.
Recalling images of the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, O’Brien is pitching the plan as a way to introduce new technology to emergency responders and remedy the major problems that keep those rescuers from communicating with each other in a disaster.
A report last month by the Homeland Security Department noted that the government had spent $2.9 billion on the problem since the 2001 attacks. But just one in five communities surveyed had the capability for “seamless” communication with state and federal officials, according to the report.
Ideally, a rescuer in a hurricane zone could call a disaster official in Washington for help and even send streaming video of the devastation.
No one is arguing with the plan’s goals. What is causing a ruckus is how Cyren Call wants to accomplish them.
The proposal would take a broad swath of the airwaves, worth billions of dollars to the public, out of the auction process. The spectrum itself, which the public owns, would go into a trust.
The money that would have been raised at auction, according to Cyren Call, would be reimbursed to taxpayers with funds “acquired by capital markets and secured with government loan guarantees.” The loans would be paid back by commercial licensees who would share the network.
The network would be operated by a contractor _ Cyren Call. The licensees would build it at their expense.
It is being billed as a public-private partnership. Critics are calling it something else.
An industry group called the High Tech DTV Coalition, consisting largely of telecommunications companies and equipment makers, criticized the plan in a letter to the Senate committee. They said it “runs counter to the objective of deploying an effective interoperable system.”
The letter describes the proposal as “an extremely risky business plan” that is “designed to benefit Cyren Call’s owners and investors while placing American taxpayers at risk.”
The spectrum in question will become available thanks to digital technology. By February 2009, television broadcasters are supposed to have completed their digital transition, freeing up space in that part of the airwaves.
The spectrum is extremely desirable for wireless communications for the same reason it worked so well for broadcasters. Signals that travel in the band can easily penetrate walls and go very long distances. A network that uses it will require fewer transmission towers.
O’Brien initially shopped his idea at the Federal Communications Commission. The agency said the plan was outside its authority and would require congressional approval.
Meanwhile, the FCC is seeking comment on a less ambitious proposal for a national broadband emergency network that would be less spectrum-hungry.
O’Brien’s concept has received support from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a member of the Senate committee. He says he will be proposing legislation that would put it in place.
Public safety officials largely have welcomed the Cyren Call concept.
McEwen says to date, he has not seen anyone come up with anything better. “I’ve worked on trying to figure out ways to solve the problem for a long time,” he said.
He supports the idea because of the additional spectrum, but also because of the private financing aspect.
“The big issue is the money. If the federal government doesn’t have to pay for it, that’s a huge relief to the taxpayers.”
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On the Net:
Cyren Call: http://www.cyrencall.com/
CTIA-The Wireless Association: http://www.ctia.org
Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee: http://commerce.senate.gov/public/
National Public Safety Telecommunications Council: http://www.npstc.org