Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel, Public Safety Team On AMBER Alerts

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 16:43:04 -0400

Nextel, Public Safety Team On AMBER Alerts
BY MARK ROCKWELL
JULY 12, 2004

WASHINGTON-Nextel Communications is rolling out a public safety
initiative aimed at finding abducted or missing children via its iDEN
technology and is offering up a template for other carriers.

The week after the FCC awarded the company 1.9 GHz spectrum in exchange
for moving out of 800 MHz spectrum to make room for public safety
providers, Nextel today unveiled a statewide AMBER alert service with
the Pennsylvania State Police and urged other carriers to use its
template for their own services. The carrier is working with the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to deliver the
service.

Nextel President and CEO Tim Donahue said the new service would use
Nextel customers' mobile phones to issue geographical-targeted alerts to
those Nextel subscribers who want to 'opt in' for the services.

The AMBER alerts, says Nextel chief technology officer Barry West, would
use cell sites, not individual wireless phones, to target who would
receive the calls - a critical capability according to law enforcement
officials. The ability for the alerts to be issued on a limited
geographic basis is essential for such services so as not to burn
customers out on them and keep the message sharp, said John Walsh, host
of Fox Network's 'America's Most Wanted' series who made the
announcement with Donahue.

Donahue didn't have much to say about the other big development in
public safety communications -- last week's FCC decision on 1.9 GHz,
other than 'congratulating Chairman [Michael] Powell on a bold move.' He
declined to say much more, adding he hadn't yet seen the final order.
Rival wireless carriers had lobbied the FCC to adopt an alternative plan
because, they argued, Nextel's plan amounted to a spectrum giveaway of
coveted 1.9 GHz spectrum.

Walsh's appearance for Nextel wasn't his first. He was instrumental in
getting the FCC to address 800 MHz interference. He lobbied the FCC hard
in the past few months on the so-called consensus plan offered by Nextel
that ended up being the centerpiece of its decision. Walsh said the 800
MHz problem came to his attention when law enforcement representatives
continually told him in the course of making 'America's Most Wanted'
that sooner or later someone would be endangered by dropped or missed
communications if the problem wasn't fixed. 'I urged Powell to do
something before a tragedy happens. I hope its works.'

As for the AMBER alert services, Walsh said he had met with CTIA
President and CEO Steve Largent concerning the issue. 'Steve's response
was wonderful,' he said. 'Steve will be a quarterback to get other
carriers to embrace this.'
Nextel plans to roll the service out nationwide in the coming year, says
Donahue, although he didn't mention specific timing. The company must
first map cell sites and coordinate those sites with the emergency alert
system and other coding to facilitate exact targeting of the warnings,
Nextel officials said.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=1&pubdate=07/12/04

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