Cyren Call Gets Funding

Cyren Call chairman Morgan O’Brien has convinced four venture capital firms to invest $4 million in the company, apparently hoping to take an early stake in a potentially lucrative bid to design, build and operate a nationwide public safety radio system. O’Brien is now lobbying members of Congress to reserve certain spectrum for public safety, rather than auction it off to commercial interests and send the revenues to the U.S. treasury. Under O’Brien’s plan, private companies and revenues from the public safety radio system would replace the auction revenues. Previous auctions have raised several billion dollars, with the latest auction raising $13.9 billion. Another company, M2Z Networks, has petitioned the FCC to build and operate a national radio network in 20 MHz of spectrum in the 2100 MHz band. The proposal includes providing some free services to public safety agencies, among other groups. Download (pdf) the M2Z proposal here.