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NCS Expands Deployment of Nationwide Wireless Priority Service

ARLINGTON, VA., April 24, 2003 – ARLINGTON, Va., April 24, 2003—The National Communications System (NCS) today announced expansion of the Wireless Priority System (WPS) to areas of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Hawaii, the next phase in its plans to expand to a nationwide capability.

According to John Graves, the program director for both the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) and WPS, the T-Mobile service has now expanded to areas around the cities of Albuquerque, N.M.; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Cincinnati; Dallas-Fort Worth; Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City; Tulsa, Okla.; and Wichita, Kan. In addition, the service is now available to customers throughout Connecticut, South and Central Pennsylvania, Upstate New York and West Texas.

These areas join the 15 geographic regions already receiving WPS service since January. Those metropolitan areas include Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; Boston; Jacksonville, Fla.; Louisville, Ken.; Memphis, Tenn.; Miami; Mobile, Ala.; Nashville, Tenn.; New Orleans; New York; Norfolk, Va.; Richmond, Va.; Philadelphia, and Washington. Graves said additional T-Mobile markets will be added nationwide over the next few months.

When trying to make a call in times of emergency or natural disaster, national security and emergency preparedness users will have the ability to gain priority access to the next available cellular channel to place their call. This service will greatly enhance their ability to complete wireless calls during critical times and communicate vital decisions and reports during emergency situations.

WPS is available only to designated leadership at all government levels, national security/emergency responders, and private sector critical infrastructure leaders and decision makers, as approved by Federal Communications Commission Rules and Requirements and the NCS. Further, WPS has been designed to have negligible impact on regular cellular users, providing priority access to vital decision makers without restricting the public’s ability to gain access to those same networks.

T-Mobile, the first carrier for the WPS service, signed a contract with the NCS through DynCorp, its Government Emergency Telecommunications Service and Wireless Priority integration contractor. Graves said the NCS still plans to add other global system for mobile communications (GSM) carriers in the near future. The NCS also plans to add code division multiple access (CDMA) carriers. The capability is designed to have minimal impact, if any, on normal consumers using cellular networks, balancing emergency priority and customer access.

The wireless priority service program couples with its GETS wireline counterpart to dramatically improve call completion during emergencies. GETS, available since October 1995, was extremely successful during the September 11 attacks.

For more information about WPS, please visit the program Web site at http://wps.ncs.gov.

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