In order to make first responders more capable of communication in disaster situations a request for the government to fund a $2 billion emergency network has been made by the third largest wireless company in the US, Sprint Nextel Corp.
A letter sent on 6th January, which was made public on 16th January, pitched the 5-year plan to President elect Barack Obama’s transition team by Sprint, which is a key supplier of equipment like the push-to-talk phones that are used by fire departments and the police.
An official for sprint described it as a “ready to deploy emergency communications system that can be programmed to be interoperable with existing public safety networks.”
A solution to the communication problems that appeared during disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the attacks on September 11th is being looked into by Obama’s transition team and they are looking to industry for ideas.
The hope from officials at Sprint, who are also in the process of lobbying lawmakers, is for the proposal to be included in economic stimulus package that is making its way through Congress, in which billions of dollars that has been flagged for technology.
Equipment and more than 100 000 more mobile handsets, and 100 satellite based trucks that would be able to respond to emergencies at as many as 40 pre-selected sites have been called for in Sprint’s plan. The shipping and arrival of the equipment from these site would take up to four hours at the most to reach anywhere in the United States.
A proposal from the Federal Communications Commission to look at the re-regulation of prices on phone lines that route internet and phone services was the second proposal to be submitted to the transition team by Sprint. Verizon, the remaining parts of the Bell phone company that until 1984 existed as a monopoly and AT&T are currently the main controllers of these lines.