Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Shuttle probers using variety of wireless voice, data systems, services

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 21:48:30 -0500

Shuttle probe: 
Carriers boost voice, 
data, wireless service in Texas

By Bob Brewin 
February 03, 2003

Computerworld

As federal officials poured into East Texas and Louisiana over the weekend to manage the
recovery of debris from the space shuttle Columbia and investigate the disaster,
communications companies scrambled to provide federal, state and local agencies with
upgraded voice, data and wireless systems. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also deployed Mobile Emergency Response
Support (MERS) communications vans from the MERS Detachment in Denton, Texas, to an
emergency command post in Lufkin, Texas, according to FEMA spokesman David Passey. Lufkin
is 184 miles southeast of Dallas. 

MERS vans, depending on the type, come equipped with a wide range of communications
systems, including Ku-band satellite systems, microwave gear to tap into phone-carrier
networks and UHF/VHF radios to communicate with state and local agencies. Passey couldn't
immediately specify which type of MERS vans had been sent to Denton. 

TXU Communications, the local exchange carrier (LEC) in Lufkin, has beefed up service into
the city's Pitser Garrison Civic Center, which is being used as an emergency command post
for several federal agencies, according to Bob Udell, the company's executive vice
president. Udell said Irving, Texas-based TXU Communications, a subsidiary of Pinnacle One
Partners LP and TXU Corp. in Dallas, installed 40-voice lines Feb. 2 for the use of
emergency personnel at the civic center. 

Udell added that NASA followed this with a request for four T1 (1.54M bit/sec.) lines to
connect the Lufkin civic center directly to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. TXU
Communications managed to get those circuits up and running within four hours, Udell said. 

He said TXU Communications anticipates that demand for data circuits will increase this
week, adding that the company can provide multiple high-speed circuits for emergency
personnel in East Texas, up to and including fiber-optic lines that operate at OC-48
(2.488G bit/sec). Udell said TXU Communications has also provided T1 circuits to hook
temporary cellular telephone switches and towers -- dubbed Cellular on Wheels (COW) --
into its network. 

Annette Teter, a spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless, said her company has
installed COWs in the Texas cities of Lufkin, Nacogdoches and Palestine. She declined to
provide any technical details for security reasons, except to say they provide the same
functionality as permanent cell sites, with the electronics mounted on trailers that
contain telescoping antenna masts. 

Teter said the Cingular network is handling increased call volumes in East Texas and
expects the volume to continue rising as additional NASA, FEMA and other government
personnel move into the area. 

Cingular Wireless also plans to deploy two additional COWs at Shreveport, La., home of
Barksdale Air Force Base, where NASA has set up a command post, Teter said. And it has
added voice channels to existing towers in East Texas and to cell sites near the Johnson
Space Center. 

The additional voice channels increase capacity, allowing a cell tower to handle more
calls. 

San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc., the other LEC providing service to East Texas,
has also provided Cingular with T1 circuits to tie its COWs into the nationwide phone
network, Teter said. SBC is expediting orders from Cingular for its East Texas COWs,
according to SBC spokeswoman Amanda Ray. 

She said SBC is ready to provide federal, state and local emergency management personnel
with additional circuits or capacity "at a moment's notice." 

AT&T Wireless Services Inc. is also involved in the effort. It has installed one COW in
Nacogdoches at the request of FEMA, according to spokesman Mark Siegel, and another COW is
on standby in East Texas, waiting for directions from FEMA on where it should go. 

Siegel said AT&T Wireless has experienced a “significant” increase in calling volume on
its Texas network since Feb. 1. “That’s to be expected anytime you have a disaster,” he
said. 
 
http://computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,78118,00.html

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From: Jack Daniel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 03:44:49 -0800

Everyone should also know there was a lot of UNCOVERED and underserviced
areas.

I was in Dallas this Tuesday and had breakfast with Dale Criag, Program
Director for Raytheon's 'First Responder' mobile command center an he
said they had to be in the Nacogdoches area to provide a rapid response
and vital communications services because the wireless carrier system in
the area were minimal. Lots of areas not covered and those that were
were overloaded. Priority access would have been of little value because
the number of agency users alone woould have maxed out the sites.

According to Mr. Craig, Raytheon was first and primary in providing
immediate, real time video feeds via Marisat and othet satellite
services from on-scene direst to NASA Houston. They were establishing
NSA secure links Tuesday morning.  
IMHO, another real example that common carriers can provide limited, but
not immediate, secondary services for major incidents. It is too much to
expect them to ever provide primary, public safety rated, for larger and
unexpected events.

Getting a bunch of stuff set up within a few days isn't 'rapid response'
to the victums and first responders in most cases, but it helps.

But I may be wrong.........
Jack Daniel
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