Dear Editor,
We first want to thank reporter Heather Forsgren Weaver for attending our press conference in Washington D.C. As you know, we believe strongly in Project LOCATE’s mission and the importance of deploying Phase II technology. It is heartening to see the rest of the trade press considers it worthwhile as well. We need and appreciate your support!
Second, we wish to correct a misapprehension that has come to our attention. Somehow the impression has been created that the major wireless carriers were not invited, nor present at our press conference. This is not the case.
When we set up the conference, we notified all the major carriers and some of them were, in fact, there, although they were maintaining a very low profile and we do not know of any whom consented to interviews at that time.
The carriers who were sent notification of the April 11 press conference included: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc.; Cingular Wireless, Nextel Communications, Inc. Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless and VoiceStream Wireless Corp. These carriers represent 70 percent of the wireless customers in the United States, according to Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, which also was invited and in attendance at the press conference.
We believed it was important that the carriers be included at this event, even though it was designed to be a setting for presenting our letters to the FCC and honoring our hero for National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, rather than a forum for a dialogue, so to speak, between public safety and the wireless carriers.
The spirit of Project LOCATE is partnership, and that partnership must include the wireless carriers. We were, therefore, pleased to see that they, like you, were among those present as we make the first steps toward Phase II deployment in every state in the nation.
Lyle V. Gallagher
President
APCO International
