ARLINGTON, Va.-Since the National Communications System no longer pays for wireless priority access service, some phones are being returned because agencies in New York and Washington can no longer afford them, said the NCS’s Kathy Blasco last week at a meeting of the Telecommunications Service Priority System Oversight Committee.
States and localities are saying, “It’s this (wireless priority access) or we put gas in the police cars,” said Blasco.
Wireless priority access service is an add-on available to certain specified entities. WPS costs the users an additional charge-above the monthly contract fee-of $4.50 per month. There is a $10 activation charge for priority access and then a 75 cents per-minute usage charge, but the minutes are not counted against the contract bucket.
Previously NCS paid the extra charges associated with WPS but stopped doing so because of its own budget constraints, Blasco said.
Today T-Mobile USA Inc. is the only WPS-available carrier. Cingular Wireless L.L.C., AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Nextel Communications Inc. likely will come on board in about a year. Estimates are that it will be at least two years before CDMA technical glitches can be worked out, allowing Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS to offer WPS.
In the initial rollout of the program in New York and Washington, D.C., NCS provided tri-band phones to users and these phones were hard-wired to be given priority. But as network changes were made to T-Mobile’s network, other phones were brought online and now any GSM-enabled phone offered by T-Mobile can be used for WPS.
Kathryn Condello, vice president of operations for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, said that NCS picked up the initial funding because the service’s “initial rollout had a lot of political attention” and NCS wanted agencies to participate.
Once the initial phase was over and the network changes were available, Condello always thought individual agencies would be responsible for funding the program.
“I am sure that all things being equal, NCS would pay for it,” said Condello, but NCS can’t even afford WPS phones and service for the White House and it runs the White House communications apparatus.
While the WPS charges may seem expensive, Condello believes this makes people think twice before using the service. “The price acts as a mechanism,” said Condello. “Use it when you need it.”
A public-safety representative from Oregon, noting T-Mobile’s limited coverage area, questioned whether an extra phone was necessary given the severe budget constraints many agencies are experiencing today. The wireless industry implored NCS to give it a business case for WPS, all to no avail, noted one carrier employee at the meeting.
Still, some government agencies and private entities are signing up for WPS. Indeed, one local phone company representative said his company has phones for 27 senior executives, but since the LEC has its own wireless affiliate, the phone is an extra device the executives must carry and only use in an emergency.
Budget woes are not only hitting local agencies, but the WPS program itself. While Blasco seemed to indicate technology was delaying the rollout of WPS to carriers beyond T-Mobile, Condello said the real reason is money.
“This is just bad news, period,” said Condello.
After Sept. 11, NCS found $200 million to use to develop WPS, but only $100 million was used for the initial GSM rollout and the T-Mobile contract. When NCS moved from the Pentagon to the newly created Department of Homeland Security, the second $100 million disappeared.
Now NCS must find the money to bring the other GSM carriers on board and to deal with the technical challenges of the CDMA protocol.
If the money cannot be found, this could seriously hamper the program, said Condello. “There is a potential the program could come to a screeching halt and if this is the case, then the body of people that one carrier can save is significantly reduced,” she said.
President Bush’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2004 contained money for WPS but the money has yet to be appropriated by Congress.
WPS is not as robust as the Government Emergency Telephone System (GETS) for wireline telephony. With a GETS code, a caller is given priority on the wireline network. With WPS, a caller is put at the head of a queue for 30 seconds, but the service does not kick anyone off a call and does not guarantee that the call will be given priority on the wireline network.
If and when an agency decides it wants to take advantage of WPS, it applies through NCS and once it is approved, it signs up for service. Once a service contract has been signed, NCS will inform the carrier to configure the account for WPS.
To access WPS, the caller would dial *272 prior to the phone number. If the caller has a GETS code and wants to get priority on the wireline network, it can also use the GETS code to get end-to-end priority connectivity.
