The Associated Press says a battle is brewing over plans for a nationwide first responder emergency broadband network by a company named Cyren Call. The $17 billion plan would build 37,000 disaster-proof transmitter towers across the United States over a decade, in the process grabbing billions in public spectrum and putting it 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," says the report. Those loans would then be paid back by commercial licensees who would share the network.

A group called the High Tech DTV Coalition, which is comprised of companies such as Verizon and Cisco, don't much care for the plan and have been fighting Cyren Call's proposal, which has the support of the majority of the nation's emergency personnel. Morgan O'Brien, chief of Cyren Call and a co-founder of Nextel, says he hasn't seen anyone come up with a better plan. The FCC meanwhile has told O'Brien the plan is too ambitious for them to authorize and requires Congressional approval. You can find the FAQ for Cyren Call's proposal here.