Cyren Call denies it demanded D block payment

Cyren Call – the corporation formed to advise the Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corp. -- angrily denied accusations that it or PSST demanded spectrum lease payments. Voices in some quarters have been saying that the alleged demands doomed the efforts of Frontline Wireless to compete for the D block and launch a public-private safety network.

In a statement (PDF), Cyren Call CEO Morgan O’Brien said:

Anyone stating or implying that I or any member of Cyren Call or the Public Safety Spectrum Trust Corporation (PSST) ‘demanded’ a spectrum lease payment is lying. Furthermore, anyone suggesting that any spectrum lease payment would be paid to Cyren Call is lying.

In the final Bidder Information Document, the PSST included a statement that it "intends to request" the D block winner make an annual lease payment for use of 10MHz of the D block spectrum. In negotiations with companies, Cyren Call threw around the number $50 million as a likely lease amount PSST would request.

Neither Cyren Call nor the PSST demanded any kind of payment or suggested that this topic would not be subject to negotiation or could not—as expressly stated in the BID—be affected by a variety of other factors.

Frontline was well aware of this expectation at the outset of the process, CC said, asserting:

Whatever caused Frontline to abandon its pursuit of the D Block occurred after it was well aware of and even had endorsed both the PSST’s partnership expectations and the FCC’s reserve price.