The National Communications System expects to have AT&T Wireless ...
The National Communications System expects to have AT&T Wireless join T-Mobile USA in providing wireless priority access service “later this year,” said Navy Capt. Katharine Burton, asst. deputy mgr. of NCS, which now is part of the Dept. of…
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Homeland Security. Next year, the priority access system, which queues up on wireless networks priority calls from national security and first responders in emergencies, expects to have reached agreements with Nextel and Cingular as well, Burton said on a CTIA Wireless 2003 panel Wed. “Wireless is the great hope for security,” FCC Chief of Staff Marsha MacBride said: “The kinds of different offerings you could do with a wireless capacity, whether it’s through a broad pipe or a small pipe, offers first responders and government in general the opportunity to do all the types of things they could never do otherwise.” All these new offerings aren’t helpful if the basic infrastructure of the wireless carrier isn’t safe, MacBride said. “We really are on the brink of a tremendous amount of good things to come out of the wireless industry for homeland security,” she said: “Make sure all those great offerings you are going to tell first responders they can use, make sure they are running on an infrastructure that you have protected to the best that you can.” Several panelists on a homeland security panel described the efforts of groups such as the FCC’s Homeland Security Policy Council and the National Reliability & Infrastructure Council. Panelists said that among the challenges that remain were how to balance govt. and industry responsibilities for upgrading security systems and infrastructure in the new environment and how state and local govts. could pay for first response and other needs. Richard Barth, Motorola vp-dir. of telecom strategy and regulation, said interoperability among public safety agencies had become a much higher profile priority since Sept. 11 and systems and standards were available to make that happen. “The thing that is sorely missing is money to build out their systems,” he said. President Bush has proposed legislation that would provide first responders with $400 million per year, Barth said, and “that’s seriously inadequate given that the majority of states across the country because of their general economic malaise don’t have the money to install the interoperable equipment that they know they need.” On the commercial wireless side, MacBride said the industry had grown up and increased the consumer expectations of reliability similar to what they had on the wireline side.