WASHINGTON-A three-star army general is trying to urge the Federal Communications Commission to allow emergency personnel using commercial wireless equipment to have priority access to the commercial network when they are engaged in first-response activities.
FCC Chairman William Kennard and Commissioner Michael Powell (Defense commissioner), recently met with Lt. Gen. David Kelley-director of the Defense Information Systems Agency and manager of the National Communications System-as part of a proposal submitted by DOD in 1995.
The DOD proposal would give emergency personnel a clear channel when their public-safety channels are congested. There is a perceived demand for some sort of relief for emergency personnel trying to access the wireless network. The perception stems from horror stories of emergency personnel not being able to get onto the wireless network during a crisis. The network congestion can be caused by wireless customers calling 911 to report the incident or, in the case of rush-hour automobile accidents, wireless users calling to say they are stuck in traffic.
DOD originally submitted a petition that represented a consensus document with the wireless industry for a program to be known as Cellular Priority Access. The proposal has since been expanded to include all CMRS. The Wireless Priority Access petition later was combined with the docket determining public-safety wireless needs, known as the Public Safety Wireless Access Committee docket.
The Priority Access program would be administered by NCS. Personnel with “first-response” duties could use the wireless network when public-safety frequencies were tied up. These personnel would be given a special code on their wireless telephone. NCS would administer the system to verify the personnel who received the special codes were personnel with first-response duties. When the emergency personnel used the phone during a rescue situation, they would be placed in a queue to get the next available channel. No one would be kicked off a telephone call, a DOD official said.
It is unclear whether the additional spectrum allocations occurring during the PSWAC process will solve the lack of communications capabilities that public-safety officials have today. The FCC would like to believe the problem will be solved with additional spectrum and that priority access won’t be needed.
NCS believes that priority access should be implemented regardless of the outcome of the PSWAC process even if PSWAC solves the communications needs because if the needs are solved then no one will use priority access, thus there would be no impact on the network.
Priority access also could be implemented as a short-term solution to the interoperability problems being faced by public-safety agencies across the country until the 800 MHz spectrum from the digital TV conversion becomes available.
The consensus achieved in 1995 has since fallen apart, DOD officials said. “Some of the people who were initially on our side have since objected,” one DOD source said.
One of those parties objecting is the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. “Obviously [wireless priority access] presents problems for us, especially if it is knocking everybody else off the system. Increased channels for emergency personnel could knock other users off. As a practical matter, no one wants to knock customers off but depending on the scheme that is set up, that could happen,” said Tim Ayers, CTIA’s vice president for communications.
Other objections to the proposal are technological. For example, channel queuing won’t work with analog systems. Public-safety personnel interested in using priority access will have to use digital equipment.
Channel reservation is another way to accomplish the same goal, but is expensive.
