Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Dog Pound - Dec. 4, 2002

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 2002 19:22:33 -0500

Outrage is beginning to grow over telecom company SBC's plan to charge PSAPs a per-call
fee for wireless 911 in Missouri (21 cents) and Kansas (28 cents), where voters have
turned down customer 911 surcharges--twice in Missouri. SBC reportedly has also proposed
such fees in the other 11 states it serves. The Kansas City (Kan./Mo.) region handled
about 1 million wireless 911 calls last year, putting their proposed tab at $210,000 a
year. Regulators in both states are reviewing SBC's tariff request.

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Sorta related: the Jefferson City (Mo.) city attorney is pushing a class-action lawsuit
against wireless carriers Nextel, Alltel and Sprint PCS that accuses them of deceptively
listing certain 911 fees on customer bills. Tim Van Ronzelen said he doesn't dispute the
fees, only that they're listed along with other state-required taxes. The lawsuit said it
makes it appear to customers that they have Phase II service, when in fact none of the
three carriers offers the location service. The suit points out that Nextel now collects
$1.55 per month from almost every customer, totaling $180 million a year.

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On Tuesday Jonathan Adelstein was sworn in as a member of the Federal Communications
Commission, filling a long-vacant seat. Adelstein is a previous Senate staffer, including
a 7-year stint for Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD). He's a Stanford University graduate and is
from Rapid City (SD). His shortened term expires next June.

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A Pasadena (Calif.) dispatcher is facing discipline after a wireless caller dialed 911,
grew impatient with a recording from the Highway Patrol, dialed "Information" and received
the PPD number, and then reached a dispatcher there she claims was rude and abrupt. The
caller was reporting a man with a gun driving erratic, but was told she had dialed "the
wrong number." A police spokesman said, "This is not how we do business."

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The safety advocacy group ComCARE Alliance has filed comments with the U.S. Department of
Transportation saying that hazardous materials shipments on the nation's highway represent
a "significant threat" to homeland security, yet, "methods used to communicate information
to first responders about hazardous materials incidents are outdated and dangerous, to
responders and the public." The group "strongly encouraged" that carriers hauling HAZMAT
cargos be required to install telematics-type equipment to immediately report accidents or
other incidents involving their vehicles. Check the Alliances's home page headlines for
links to more info:

http://www.comcare.org/

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So AT&T has said they'll be turning off their CDPD system after next year... what's a
public safety agency to do for mobile data? Well, Dataradio Corp. just installed what it
says is only the second 32 kbps mobile data for public safety in Corsicana (Tex.) for the
police department. Dataradio's GeminiPD+ radio modems operate on the department's own UHF
radio system and handle 38 laptops accessing CAD, records management, NCIC access and
more. 
 
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Washington (DC) officials are turning a mistake into... well, an advantage. City officials
earlier cut out several necessary components from their Motorola public safety radio
system contract. That reduced the system from $31 million to $17 million--but basically
made the system useless useless. Now the District says it will separately bid the cost of
1,200 portable radios, a back-up microwave antenna system and diagnostic/alarm system,
possibly saving lots of money. "We successfully reduced the amount of the contract," a
city official said proudly. The District may lose some federal funding for the project
because of the delay, and the re-bid will also delay implementation by months.

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The DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics has just released their 2001 victimzation survey,
and it shows little change in crime reporting to the police from 2000. Violent crimes were
reported in just 49.4% of incidents, and property crimes were reported to police in just
37% of cases. The most-reported crime was auto theft (81.6%), while theft was the lowest
(30.1%). Even robbery was reported for only 60.5% of incidents, the survey found.

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