U.S. to implement wireless emergency telecom network

The U.S. government will establish an emergency wireless communications system for the nation's top decision makers by the end of the year, a Bush administration official said last week.

Implementation of the Wireless Priority Services program, an effort of the 22-agency National Communications System (NCS), is being sped up since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to Brenton Greene, the NCS deputy manager. It is already a pilot program in Washington and New York City and is "fully on track" for full implementation in December, Greene told a conference of the Air Force Communications and Electronics Association on Thursday.

The system gives priority to key decision makers to connect their calls "anytime, anywhere," he said. It will use the Global System for Mobile Communications technology standard and involves VoiceStream Wireless, Cingular Wireless, AT&T and Nextel Communication.

The system would have a minimum impact on consumers by never using more than 25 percent of bandwidth, Greene said, adding that the use of handheld computers and the Internet also is being examined.

The wireless system was commissioned and approved in 2000 but received no funding, he said. It builds on the existing landline-based Government Emergency Telecommunications Services, under which a special calling card is used for access to priority switches.

Before Sept. 11, there were 40,000 users of the system, 1,500 of whom used it that day. About 10,000 priority calls were made on and immediately following Sept. 11, with a 95-percent completion rate, Greene said.

Lt. Gen. Harry Raduege, head of the Defense Information Systems Agency, leads NCS, which was created by presidential executive order after communications problems between heads of state during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis heightened the threat of conflict. The system was created to provide a single, unified communications system for the president and other decision makers during emergencies.

In 1984, the emergency system was broadened to include 22 federal departments and agencies. They are represented on the NCS through the Committee for National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications, which meets at least twice yearly. The preparedness committee provides recommendations through the president's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, which is headed by Richard Clarke, director of the Office of Cyberspace Security.

Also under the NCS is the Federal Communications Commission's Telecommunications Service Priority Program, which gives priority to companies with highest need for circuits during a disaster. The program was vital to the restoration of Wall Street financial operations in six days after Sept. 11, Greene said.

The Shared Resources High Frequency Radio Program also is under NCS. Known as SHARES, it provides a single, interagency emergency message-handling system by bringing together existing high-frequency radio resources of federal, state and industry organizations when normal communications are unavailable for transmitting national security information.

Other groups that coordinate with the NCS include the president's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee and the National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications, a public-private body that works to coordinate emergency preparedness efforts nationally and internationally.