WASHINGTON-The Defense appropriations bill about to be passed by Congress will not include any of the $73 million the Bush administration requested for wireless priority access, a stunning blow to the Pentagon as well as GSM mobile phone carriers and vendors that were positioned to capture lucrative government contracts.
“We are disappointed in the Congress’ decision to cut funds for wireless priority service. This cut cripples an urgently needed national capability whose major users would be our nation’s national security leadership, emergency preparedness personnel, infrastructure operators and first responders,” said Brenton Greene, deputy manager of the National Communications System.
At the same time, House and Senate appropriators agreed to earmark $4.5 million to increase the availability of current-generation, secure digital mobile phones used by federal officials. Lawmakers also approved a reprogramming of $10 million to support the development of more robust secure nationwide cellular capability with multi-band functionality.
