Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 9/11 Firefighters, Senior and Minority Groups to Warn Nextel Spectrum 'Grab' Will be Setback for Efforts to Improve Post-9/11 Emergency Communications

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 22:08:40 -0400

9/11 Firefighters, Senior and Minority Groups to Warn Nextel Spectrum
'Grab' Will be Setback for Efforts to Improve Post-9/11 Emergency
Communications

NOTE:  News Event Time Moved to 10:30 a.m. EDT June 24, 2004
White Paper Outlines Problems for Large, Small Police and Fire Units;
Nextel Plan Viewed as Roadblock to Progress
on 'Interoperability'

WASHINGTON, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- A newly formed "First Response
Coalition" of firefighters (including New York City veterans of the
terrorist attack on the World Trade Center) and other groups will
release a white paper warning that a Nextel spectrum grab scheme now
being considered by the Federal Communications Commission would make it
much more difficult for police and firefighters struggling with
post-September 11th demands to improve and coordinate emergency
communications.

News event speakers will be:

* Commissioner William Fox, Metropolitan Fire Association, New York
City;

* Robert Stephens, chief of dispatch, Fire Department of New York
(retired);

* Gene Stilp, firefighter, EMT and vice president of the Dauphin-
   Middle Paxton Fire Company #1, Dauphin, PA.; and

* Will Thomas, director, Corporate Accountability Project, Gray
Panthers.

The experts will warn that the Nextel plan will stymie post-9/11
progress toward "interoperability" of communication between police,
firefighters and other first responders.  The Coalition's white paper
report also objects to the fact that the Nextel plan will require public
service agencies to put up the front-end money to upgrade their
communications facilities and then apply after the fact for
reimbursement.  This would impose a huge burden, since there are 20,000
cities and counties in the United States, and thousands of other local
jurisdictions. In 2003, there were over 2.5 million public safety first
responders in the United States, with no uniform standards in existence
to govern their communications.

TO PARTICIPATE:  You can join the live phone-based news conference (with
Q&A) by calling 1 (800) 860-2442 by 10:30 a.m. EDT on June 24, 2004.
Ask for the "first response coalition" news event.

CAN'T PARTICIPATE?:  The coalition's white paper, a related news
release and a streaming audio replay of the phone-based news conference
will
be available on the Web on June 24, 2004 at

http://thehastingsgroup.com/firstresponders.html.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2004/Jun/1051649.htm

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