Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Crisis calls earn wireless priority

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 23:51:21 -0500

Crisis calls earn wireless priority

By Ben Charny
Special to ZDNet News
January 21, 2003, 12:03 PM PT

T-Mobile on Tuesday began giving priority access to cell phone calls made by
emergency service workers in 15 different U.S. metropolitan areas.

The carrier is among the first to offer "wireless priority" to emergency workers, a move
prompted by problems encountered during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and
Washington, D.C. At the time, some of the highest-ranking U.S. officials couldn't use cell

phones to coordinate recovery efforts because East Coast cell phone networks were either
destroyed or overwhelmed by calls at the time.

Starting Tuesday, T-Mobile subscribers who are among the 50,000 emergency officials
approved by the Defense Department's National Communications System (NCS) can dial *272
(the "star" key and 272) and be guaranteed a call over the next available telephone
circuit, said
NCS representative Steve Barrett.

The NCS was given the task
by President George W.
Bush and his administration
of making wireless priority a
reality. Barrett said he
expects AT&T Wireless,
Nextel Communications and
Cingular Wireless to begin
offering wireless priority
services "later this year."

Barrett could not provide a
specific date, however, for
when wireless priority would
come from the nation's
largest cell phone provider,
Verizon Wireless, and the
No. 4 carrier, Sprint PCS. He
would only say the two
carriers are slated to offer wireless priority at a later date.

T-Mobile has been giving cell phone priority access since May 2002 to a limited number of
emergency workers in Washington, D.C. and New York City, the site of the most destructive
of
the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The effort launched Tuesday extends priority to all workers in those cities and adds
priority
access for emergency workers in another 13 metropolitan areas, such as Boston, Atlanta,
New
Orleans and Philadelphia, Barrett said. All of the areas included are on the East Coast.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/