PRIORITY ACCESS SERVICE FUNDING EFFORTS CONTINUE FOR FY 2003

Graves said FCC’s temporary waiver for T-Mobile for GSM- based pilot of priority access service (PAS) in N.Y. and Washington expires Dec. 31. That waiver temporarily exempted T-Mobile from regulatory provision for voluntary PAS program on ability of users with priority ranking to be able to activate PAS on per-call basis by dialing feature code. By year-end, networks for PAS program will be upgraded so users can dial feature code to access system, Graves said. Nearly 4,000 users that are part of N.Y. and Washington pilot program will be transferred to initial operating system by year-end, but shouldn’t notice any significant differences, he said. Under initial operating capability specification, if networks are congested during emergency, caller with priority access would be placed in queue to wait for access to next available cell site. One key additional capability for full-blown program is that it can line up inbound calls, giving priority to person waiting to be called. Timing of full capability for program is contingent on what happens with congressional funding this fall, with some in industry and govt. expecting it still could pass this year as part of another legislative package, such as homeland security.

Initial operating capability nationwide still is on track to be completed by end of next year, Graves said. But deletion from Defense Dept.’s appropriations bill of $73 million for 2003 “is a killer” for full operational capability beyond that unless funding picture changes, he said. “Managers and deputy managers are engaging in the federal government at the highest levels we possibly can to deal with this program,” he said.

Industry-govt. standards work on PAS solution involving CDMA networks is continuing, Graves said. Advantage of using GSM wireless networks for first part of rollout is that those networks already have priority access capability through enhanced multilevel precedence and preemption, he said. That feature allows queuing of wireless priority calls, avoids preemption of existing calls on networks and carves out capacity for general users. NCS in past has said immediate solution made available in N.Y. and Washington earlier this year by T-Mobile also included enhanced satellite service that reconfigured users away from network congestion and incorporated priority telecom features such as existing wireline version of PAS, which is GETS. GETS, which gives national security and emergency personnel access to wireline networks during emergencies through system based on calling card doesn’t have same priority as does PAS, Graves said. National security and emergency responders are given access to network, which doesn’t make distinction about who should jump to front of line. That hasn’t been issue because unlike cell site that’s limited to 200 channels and must be protected from potential congestion, wireline networks have trunk groups of 500-1,000 trunks, so GETS users aren’t likely to cause bottlenecks, Graves said. “We do think it’s important to have in the future” in wireline network for GETS, he said of priority capability. While Signaling System-7 switches have embedded multilevel preemption capabilities, no one uses that capability now except Defense Dept., he said.

FCC and NCS officials said they were continuing outreach efforts on telecom service priority (TSP) program to state and local govts. TSP program, created in 1988, gives govts. and key industries priority over other telecom users in emergencies. FCC’s Ken Moran said Commission raised issue at summer NARUC meeting. He and others said at Wed. meeting that some local public safety agencies might have “false sense of security” on how they fit into TSP. While GETS program provides way for govt. users to get onto wireline networks during emergencies, TSP involves restoration of network itself during crises. Program provides for priority provisioning and restoration of qualified national security and emergency telecom services. FCC order requires vendors to restore services with TSP assignments before services without such assignments. Some attendees at meeting said that, historically, public safety agencies hadn’t gone to great lengths to obtain TSP assignments, in part based on cost concerns and extent to which LECs always had made restoring 911 service priority in catastrophes.

Saying issue had come up at summer NARUC meeting, Moran said there were several state govts. that hadn’t established TSP lines, even for governor’s office. Representatives of Bell companies and federal govt. said issue didn’t appear to have come up yet in situation in which LEC had to turn down restoration request for 911 service because local agency didn’t have TSP standing. But several officials stressed such tension could arise in post-Sept. 11 environment if there was large-scale disaster situation at which critical infrastructure had to be restored on several levels simultaneously. Problem, they said, is that by law, service providers are required to restore TSP assignments first. Representative of public safety community in Ore. said that in his state, most public safety answering points hadn’t sought TSP assignments, partly because of cost concerns and partly because of dearth of federal offices and military installations. “What we get on the local level from the local phone company is ‘you are a priority,'” he said. “Maybe that needs to be revisited, because things have changed.” Verizon representative said there were some “myths” about cost of service because recurring per-line charge typically was around $5, although there were start-up costs associated with program.