Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Dog Pound - Jan. 27, 2003

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 17:08:37 -0500

In one of the biggest personnel changes possible for public safety, Tom Sugrue, chief of
the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, is leaving his post after a four-year
stint--longer than any other chief of the WTB. He'll be replaced by John Muleta, currently
the president and CEO of Source 1 Technologies LLC, a privately-held, DC-based systems
integration firm. Muleta worked at the FCC from 1994-1998 in various capacities, including
deputy chief of the Common Carrier Bureau. Sugrue came from a legal background, but was
always an easy-going, sometimes funny, and always sympathetic person who represented
public safety very well at the FCC.

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Demonstrating the hierarchy of economic needs, Intrado issued a press release about a
speech given by Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children (NCMEC), at the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in
Washington (DC). Intrado's press release went on to to promote their Intellicast emergency
notification system, "Able to call more than 1,000 phone numbers per minute." In the
release, Intrado billed themselves as, "the vendor of the only 9-1-1 network-based
notification service currently on the market."

In turn, Allen's speech urged the mayors to incorporate emergency telephone notification
into their homeland security plans, obviously hoping to pick up funding or help in meeting
the group's goal of locating missing children.

And in turn, the mayors have written their own letter to Congress, pointing out that local
cities and towns have spent "billions" to increase security and respond to local
incidents. The mayor's asked for their rightful share of the $3.5 billion in federal
homeland security funds proposed by President Bush, but which hasn't yet been passed by
Congress. 

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By the way, Intrado's press release cited market research by Gartner Dataquest that says
information technology spending for public safety will increase at an average annual rate
of 7%, from $6.72 billion in 2001 to $8.77 billion in 2005.  About 10 percent of state and
local spending each year is related to public safety, according to Gartner Dataquest.

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Earlier the FCC issued a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on 911 issues...well,
because of delays in having the Notice printed in the Federal Register, the FCC has
extended the deadline for comments from Feb. 3 to Feb. 18.

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WBAL-TV reported that Anne Arundel County dispatchers are fielding lots of accidental
wireless 911 calls--there were about 32,000 wireless 911 hang-up calls during the last 9
months of 2002, the station's news report said. That's about one-half the wireless 911
calls they receive, officials told the station. Dispatcher Krista Barlow told a reporter,
"You just hear people talking in the background or the music playing, or sometimes people
would be pushing buttons and they don't realize they already dialed the phone."

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