It didn’t take long after the 2001 terrorist attacks for the Federal Communications Commission to get energized on wireless priority access service, which during emergencies queues first responders and government officials ahead of rank-and-file cellphone subscribers. The FCC issued priority access rules in 2000, roughly five years after the National Communication System requested federal guidelines. The process zigzagged, as legal, regulatory and funding issues popped up before eventually being resolved.
“We cannot underestimate the importance of public safety and national security operations,” stated FCC member Kevin Martin in April 2002, some three years before President Bush named him chairman of the agency. “Emergency response service providers at the federal, state and local levels require instant, reliable, unfettered mobile voice access in times of crises. Priority access service will be critical in helping to meet the country’s communications needs related to national security and emergency preparedness. It will further the commission’s statutory mandate to ‘make available … a rapid, efficient nationwide … communication service … for the purpose of national defense, [and] for the purpose of promoting safety of life and property.’ “
Homeland security would become a signature theme for Martin, rivaled only by his campaign to extend the reach of broadband access dominated by the Bell telephone-cable TV duopoly. Two weeks after the fifth anniversary of 9/11, the FCC announced the creation of the new Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.
“The events of Sept. 11th, 2001 and last year’s hurricane season underscored America’s reliance on an effective national telecommunications infrastructure,” Martin stated when the bureau was launched in September 2006. “Public safety is one of the commission’s and my top priorities. We have a history of taking action to ensure the operability of the nation’s communications networks.”
