The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the subsequent creation of a still-evolving homeland security regime in the United States probably did more for the wireless industry than all the combined hype about third-generation mobile-phone technology that preceded the startling wake-up call to America nearly three years ago.
Officials quickly realized wireless technology offered killer-app capabilities necessary to prevent and pre-empt new asymmetrical threats from highly mobile and ingenious terrorists. Wireless technology providing information superiority to the front lines-from button-down official Washington to soldiers in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan-was deemed essential in the homeland security era.
A new industry was born. It came into being around the same time the wireless industry and the tech sector generally were struggling to recover from a drunken, scandal-ridden dot-com orgy that prized ballyhooed applications in need of customers.
After 9/11, the situation reversed. There were customers aplenty-local, state and federal governments-that urgently demanded solutions that did not exist. Billions upon billions of government dollars were put on the table to make it happen. A gold-rush mentality not so different from the Internet boom of the late 1990s took hold.
Suddenly everybody was in the homeland-security business. Corporate portfolios expanded accordingly. Push-to-talk became sexy. Wi-Fi was not just for Starbucks anymore; defense applications showed promise too. Likewise, ultra-wideband technology showed it offers value to consumers as well as to the Pentagon.
Wireless technology is becoming a mainstay of homeland security. Homeland security wireless applications are being deployed and invented as the United States enters a critical phase described by experts as the perfect storm for terrorists. It began with this past weekend’s dedication of the National World War II Memorial. It continues next month with the Group of Eight summit in Sea Island, Ga.; the Summer Olympics in August in Athens, Greece; the Democratic and Republican national conventions in late August and early September; and finally, the Nov. 2 presidential election.
Emboldened by political repercussions in Spain as a result of the March 11 Madrid train bombings, officials believe terrorists likely want to determine who will be the next U.S. president. All this has the Bush administration scrambling to incorporate technology-including wireless-into advance plans.
The homeland security overlay has come with a price, at least for the wireless industry. To call homeland security a mixed blessing is an understatement.
On a basic level, homeland security has refocused government’s gaze on a wireless industry desperately seeking less attention from federal agencies.
The government wants to trade notes with mobile-phone companies, guaranteeing wireless executives that coveted corporate secrets are safe with Uncle Sam. The government expects mobile-phone carriers to modify networks to give key officials and first responders priority in making calls during emergencies. The government is depending on wireless firms to ensure network infrastructure can withstand cyber attacks. U.S. officials are big on redundancy, believing multiple networks help ensure there will be less damage if terrorists try to garble computer systems or sabotage power lines used by telecom networks. The only problem is wireless and wireline telecom sectors are consolidating, actually increasing vulnerability to critical infrastructure.
The government also expects unprecedented cooperation on expanded digital wiretaps. The government is anxious to integrate wireless and Internet technologies into an outmoded national emergency alert system, but it has not yet figured out how to do it in a way that does not create a new federal mandate.
In the post-9/11 era, U.S. policy-makers have grown increasingly impatient with delayed implementation of location-based, enhanced 911 wireless services. Lack of public-safety communications interoperability-still a problem 32 months after terrorists commandeered airplanes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon-has become a national disgrace.
Even Tom Ridge, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, acknowledges the blemish on U.S. preparedness.
“So many people here today know that part of the tragedy of Sept. 11 was that equipment didn’t work across jurisdictions and disciplines. We have heard that fire-department radios couldn’t transmit to police-department radios,” said Ridge in prepared testimony for the National Commission on Terrorists Attacks Upon the United States May 19 in New York City.
Separate advanced wireless communications systems addressing the interoperability problem are planned for New York City and the state. While the citywide 4.9 GHz first-responder initiative is still in the proposal stage, controversy has erupted over Gov. George Pataki’s award of what is believed to be a $1 billion statewide contract to M/A-Com Inc. over Motorola Inc.
“This problem has to be fixed, and there is both an immediate and longer-term solution. There are immediate steps the department can take in the short term, while we focus everyone’s attention on a long-term, integrated solution to overall interoperability,” stated Ridge. “Already, the department has identified technical specifications for a baseline incident interoperable communication system that will allow first responders to communicate with each other during a crisis, regardless of frequency or mode of communication.”
To coordinate such activities, Ridge said a new Office of Interoperability and Compatibility will be launched in the near future.
It turns out homeland security is extremely complicated-some say compromised-by bureaucracy, turf battles and the human factor. It is a world of show horses and workhorses. Technology, it turns out, may be the easy part.
“It’s not one problem. It’s many problems,” said Dan Bart, senior vice president of standards and special projects at the Telecommunications Industry Association.
Bart and his colleagues are workhorses in the homeland security arena. TIA represents telecom vendors.
Funding frustration is everywhere.
Indeed, the House Commerce Committee this week plans to mark up legislation to provide faster and smarter funding to first responders such as police, firefighters and medics.
“Regarding homeland security, the communications industry has a proven track record of success when it comes to network reliability, interoperability and priority access systems. Currently there are two primary areas of focus in the standards arena related to homeland security: network security for IP-based networks and wireless public-safety technology,” said Susan Miller, president of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions.
Miller said ATIS soon plans to release location accuracy testing methodology to assist the Federal Communications Commission, which like many other agencies has crafted a homeland security agenda.
