Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Priority Access- Emergency telecom programs gave responders access

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 19:21:23 -0400

Emergency telecom programs gave responders access

08/18/03
By William Jackson,
GCN Staff

Priority services operated by the National Communications System gave government
officials and emergency personnel access
to both landline and wireless telecommunications during last week’s blackout that
shut down parts of the Northeast.

Although most of the telecommunications infrastructure remained in operation
during the blackout, usage spikes overwhelmed
resources, making access difficult for many calling to or from the affected areas
Thursday evening and into Friday. That is the
situation for which the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service was
established for landline phones, and the
Wireless Priority Service for cellular phones.

GETS is a nationwide program. On the cellular side, T-Mobile USA Inc. of Bellevue,
Wash., is the only company to provide
priority wireless access.

“Reports from T-Mobile indicate that Wireless Priority Service was operational and
used across multiple switching centers in
New York and Washington during the blackout,” GETS and WPS program director John
Graves said. “Wherever T-Mobile
had power to base stations, we had WPS capability.”

GETS also worked, giving priority users access to the public-switched network.

NCS, formerly run by the Defense Department, now is part of the Homeland Security
Department’s Information Analysis and
Infrastructure Protection Directorate.

Graves said his office is collecting data from T-Mobile on the number of calls
attempted and completed through WPS.

Areas affected by the blackout where the priority service is available include
Cleveland, Detroit, New York City and upstate
New York.

WPS gives priority to calls by federal, state and local officials and industry
first responders who dial a special prefix on the
T-Mobile system. Routine calls are not dropped, but priority calls are moved to
the head of the queue waiting for a channel on
the nearest available cell.

Performance figures during the blackout have not yet been gathered, but NCS
estimated WPS would give users a 95 percent
chance of completing a call on a congested system.

http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/23184-1.html

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