No Priority Wireless Funding Without Homeland Security Office

Communications Today, Nov 15, 2002

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Until Congress and President Bush agree on the details of the proposed Department of Homeland Security, funding won't be available to pay wireless operators' costs for providing nationwide priority access at times when wireline service could be disrupted. "This problem has dropped between the cracks and we do not have the funding to take priority cell phone service around the country," said Richard Clarke, chairman of the White House's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. Clarke, who also is a special advisor to Bush for cyberspace security, spoke Thursday at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association's Homeland Security Conference here.

The $73 million the White House's National Communications Systems office needs to fund priority wireless access was not included in the $355-billion Department of Defense appropriations a conference committee approved in October. Clarke said that funding is likely to be approved once a Homeland Security office is established. Until then, "when the fire chief in Chicago...pulls up to a disaster and the cell lines are all crowded, chances are he's not going to get through," he said. "We need to take it nationwide." For more on this story, read the next issue of Wireless Data News due out on Nov. 20. For subscription information, visit the "newsstand" at http://www.TelecomWeb.com.

[Copyright 2002 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]