WASHINGTON-As allegations fly back and forth over the award of Iraqi mobile-phone licenses and public-safety contracts in a war-torn country where insurgency has become a destabilizing force, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority finds itself far behind schedule in establishing a first-responder network that officials recently decided should be nationwide and which translates into at least $90 million in business for wireless vendors.
In an April report to Congress, CPA Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen Jr. informed lawmakers of changes in how the U.S.-led coalition and Ministry of Communications want to approach first-responder communications in Iraq.
“Since that report [January 2004] was transmitted, the overall acquisition strategy for the National Security Communications Network has shifted to reflect a more aggressive, comprehensive nationwide strategy,” said Bowen.
Initially, officials planned to limit public-safety wireless communications to agencies within the Ministry of Interior. Now the first-responder network will extend throughout a land of 168,000 square miles and 23 million people.
All told, Bowen said he expected the first-responder network to service 30,000 handheld radios and 9,375 vehicle-based radios in 83 key Iraqi cities by the middle of this August.
For a variety of reasons, the chances of meeting that deadline are slim to none. In addition to security and other problems in advance of the June 30 deadline for turning over political control to a reconstituted Iraqi government, there are new allegations of irregularities in connection with the grant of GSM mobile-phone licenses last year and preparations for a first-responder network in the country.
John A. Shaw, deputy undersecretary for international technology security at the Pentagon, and others reportedly are being investigated for allegedly trying to modify a $70 million port-dredging contract awarded in March to NANA Pacific in a way that would enable Qualcomm Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc.-two top U.S. CDMA suppliers-to build a nationwide first-responder network that eventually would double as a commercial mobile-phone system. CDMA is dwarfed by GSM technology in the Middle East.
At a meeting here last November, Daniel Sudnick, until recently the senior telecom adviser at the CPA, strongly hinted at a public-private partnership in the deployment of first-responder wireless communications in Iraq.
However, last week, the CPA appeared to shut the door on allowing NANA Pacific-a native Alaska firm that qualifies for non-compete contracts-to leverage its existing port contract to build a nationwide first-responder network. “The first-responder network is not a part of that [NANA Pacific] contract … The requirements for the first-responder network contract are still being written,” said Steven Susens, a spokesman for the CPA Program Management Office.
NANA Pacific officials did not return calls for comment.
Still, questions remain.
Lucent, which won a $70 million Iraq telecom contract in March, appears interested in commercial opportunities associated with the construction of a first-responder network. On its Web site, Lucent said its Iraqi contract includes a program to provide initial public-safety communications for the Ministry of Interior.
What is clear is that time is not on CPA’s side as Iraqis grow weary of U.S. occupation, especially in light of U.S. prison abuses at Abu Ghraib.
“The first-responder network needs to be part of the infrastructure to help Iraqi people have a better quality of life,” said Susens. He said the network is essential to saving lives. “Honestly,” said Susens, “we’d like to do this as soon as possible.”
Last week, militant Iraqis decapitated Nicholas Berg, 26, an engineer who took leave from his tower business in Pennsylvania to look for cellular infrastructure business in Iraq.
Meantime, the Pentagon also reportedly is investigating the issuance of three Iraqi GSM mobile-phone licenses last year. The focus-as it was last year when the Pentagon conducted an initial inquiry before supposedly forwarding the matter to British authorities-is on Nadhmi Auchi and his relationship to the three licensees. Auchi, a top Iraqi businessman, is said to have had financial connections to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The Department of Defense will neither confirm nor deny whether it is indeed conducting GSM- and CDMA-related probes.
