July 31, 2006 – Page 2098
When Morgan O’brien in April proposed creating a new wireless broadband network so state, local and federal emergency response agencies could easily communicate with one another, the reaction from lawmakers and wireless industry lobbyists was so negative you would have thought he was proposing to outlaw tassled loafers.
“I oppose it,” said Rep.
Once again, the maverick co-founder of Nextel Corp., who sold his company to Sprint Corp. in 2005 for more than Lockheed Martin Co. is worth, is trying to shake up the wireless industry — this time with public safety (along with the usual entrepreneur’s self-interest) in mind.
We learned on Sept. 11, and again with Hurricane Katrina, how a lack of “interoperability” can exacerbate the death and ruin caused by a disaster. Yet emergency responders remain crippled by their inability to quickly communicate across agencies. The average family has wireless, broadband and video technology far superior to that of the average response team in the field.
O’Brien believes commanders on the scene of a disaster should be able not only to speak with all the on-site federal, local and state emergency teams, but also to have a 360-degree view of the scene via video feeds from the agents’ cell phones. Firefighters, he believes, should be equipped with heat sensors and video cameras.
But none of this will be possible, O’Brien contends, under the government’s current plans for wireless interoperability.
Congress wants to steer $1 billion in auction revenue toward public safety wireless gear. And the Federal Communications Commission for years has been wrestling with a plan to give agencies 24 MHz in scattered blocks of new frequencies. But such spectrum, O’Brien contends, is not very useful. And the equipment money amounts to “less than four new radios per agency,” leaving nothing for tower upgrades.
O’Brien’s eyes are on the 60 MHz that television broadcasters must give back to the government in 2008. His plan is to set aside half of it for a new, nationwide public safety broadband network. These frequencies, at the 700 MHz range, are extremely valuable because they’re capable of traveling for 30 miles through walls, trees and buildings.
A nationwide 30 MHz license would go to a public trust to be privately managed. (He thinks his new company, Cyren Call, is perfect for the job.) Wireless carriers would have access to the spectrum, but only if they helped to build and operate the public safety network. In an emergency, first-responders would get priority access.
While righteous in concept, O’Brien’s plan has a lot going against it: In addition to vehement opposition from the big cellular carriers, Congress has already approved auctioning the very radio spectrum he wants the government to set aside for free — starting in January 2008.
Three months into his campaign, O’Brien seems to be off to a slow start. No public safety group has endorsed his idea. No lawmaker has agreed to sponsor it. But O’Brien has been busy evangelizing to fire stations, city halls and agencies. And, of course, on Capitol Hill.
He also has been tweaking his plan. In an interview in his McLean, Va., offices, O’Brien said he has a way to correct its biggest shortcoming: that it would deny the Treasury an estimated $5 billion in auction revenue. In his new pitch, the trust would buy the spectrum, making payments to the Treasury to make it “whole” within budget expectations. The trust would then auction rights to lease the airwaves to companies willing to build and operate the public safety network, along with their own wireless broadband business. They also could resell excess capacity to other carriers. Lawmakers on the Budget committees, his staff said, have responded favorably to the concept.
O’Brien said his new plan would welcome, but not depend on, cooperation from the cellular giants. “I don’t see them being players in this,” he said, other than as obstacles. “We’re not looking for their support.”
Rather, it would be attractive to the many new companies hoping to build regional broadband wireless networks. Such firms, he thinks, will find security and business sense in the idea of joining a federally sanctioned project to build a public safety wireless super-skyway. And lawmakers would find political benefit: It promises a kind of broadband “universal service” for rural areas.
Wireless lobbyists know never to count O’Brien out. He is hardly a novice, after all, when it comes to wireless, public safety or winning long-shot lobbying battles. At the dawn of the cellular age — the early 1990s — he persuaded regulators to let Nextel cobble together enough airwaves from mom-and-pop mobile radio-dispatch companies to become a viable cellular operator. He was despised by his cellular rivals (and radio-dispatch users) for his tactics and hubris. But Nextel became a strong third competitor to what was then a duopoly in the cell phone market, ultimately driving down prices.
O’Brien, for his part, remains confident. “Yes, it’s an uphill battle,” he said. “But, look, we’re not revoking the laws of physics here. It can be done. I’ve done it in the past. But it’s really hard.”
Mike Mills is CQ’s executive editor for electronic publishing.