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NCS Looking Into Back-up Dial Tone Capabilities

Arlington, VA., November 12, 2002 - The events of September 11, 2001, emphasized key Federal agencies’ risk of losing critical wireline telephone services when the public switched telephone network (PSTN) is damaged or congested.

Although existing National Communications System (NCS) programs, such as the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) and the Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) program provide for priority queuing or priority provisioning of the PSTN during emergencies, they do not fully address the problem of a loss of dial tone due to disconnection from the PSTN.

Seeing this as a major concern for national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) communications, Richard Clarke, the President’s Special Advisor for Cyberspace Security, sent a memorandum on October 9, 2001, requesting the NCS “…evaluate the need for [a Back-Up Dial Tone (BDT)] capability in Washington, D.C., and whether [it] would have helped in New York and in the Pentagon area on September 11 … and to evaluate various technical approaches to providing this service, with cost and timeframe estimates.”

According to Valerie Liles, a telecommunications management specialist with the NCS Technology and Programs Division, the Back-up Dial Tone project is a three-phased study designed to provide definitive answers to this issue. The first two phases, completed by June 2002, consisted of analyzing generic and then actual Government architectures used to access the PSTN.

The third phase, selecting partner agencies and selecting, installing, and testing technology demonstrations, is well underway. “Once our volunteer partner agencies select the technical solution they are willing to help us demonstrate, we negotiate agreements with them and then our contractor arranges installation and conducts tests,” Liles stated. She went on to explain that, after a year of testing, the partner agency can opt to have the capability removed, or they can negotiate with the supplier to retain it.

After conducting a considerable amount of research into technologies such as satellite communications (SATCOM), free space optics (FSO), wireless Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and others, the NCS will begin with a demonstration of the satellite capability in December with the FSO demonstration to follow soon after.

Liles also said that, “Although our initial indications are that many organizations already have a back-up dial tone capability, some critical agencies do not. This study will identify agencies with an existing BDT capability, agencies which should implement BDT in the future, and which BDT solution is optimum for that agency.”

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