Wireless Priority Service Deployment Reaches Additional Areas of the Northeastern and Midwestern, United States and Hawaii
Bellevue, Wash. — Apr. 24, 2003
T-Mobile USA today joined with the National Communications System (NCS) to announce expansion of the Wireless Priority System (WPS) to areas of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Hawaii, the next phase in expansion of WPS to a nationwide capability.
T-Mobile WPS has now expanded to areas around the cities of Albuquerque, N.M.; Austin, Texas; Chicago, Ill.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Denver, Co.; Detroit, Mich.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Milwaukee, Wis.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Tulsa, Okla.; and Wichita, Kan. In addition, the service is now available to customers throughout Connecticut, South and Central Pennsylvania, Upstate New York and West Texas.
These areas join the 15 geographic regions already receiving WPS service since January. Those metropolitan areas include Atlanta, Ga.; Birmingham, Ala.; Boston, Mass.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Louisville, Ky.; Memphis, Tenn.; Miami, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; Nashville, Tenn.; New Orleans, La.; New York, N.Y.; Norfolk, Va.; Richmond, Va.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Washington, D.C.
“We are pleased that national advanced WPS deployment has moved forward quickly and that WPS is now available to help meet the national security and emergency preparedness communications needs of so many communities. We look forward to adding more WPS markets over the next few months,” said Gary Jones, Director of Standards Policy for T-Mobile.
When trying to make a call in times of emergency or natural disaster, national security and emergency preparedness users will have the ability to gain priority access to the next available cellular channel to place their call. This service will greatly enhance their ability to complete wireless calls during critical times and communicate vital decisions and reports during emergency situations.
WPS is available only to designated leadership at all government levels, national security and emergency preparedness personnel, and private sector critical infrastructure leaders and decision makers, as approved by Federal Communications Commission Rules and Requirements and the NCS. Further, WPS has been designed to have negligible impact on regular cellular users, providing priority access to vital decision makers without restricting the public’s ability to gain access to those same networks.
T-Mobile, through a contract with DynCorp, a CSC company and NCS’ Government Emergency Telecommunications Service and Wireless Priority integration contractor, is the only carrier currently providing WPS service.
NCS has indicated that it plans to add other global system for mobile communications (GSM) carriers and to add code division multiple access (CDMA) carriers.
The wireless priority services program couples with the NCS GETS wireline counterpart to dramatically improve end-to-end call completion during emergencies. GETS, available since October 1995, was extremely successful during the September 11th attacks.
Additional details on the NCS WPS program are available at http://wps.ncs.gov.
Lindsay Morio
T-Mobile USA Media Relations
425-383-4002
About T-Mobile USA, Inc.
Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile USA, Inc. is the U.S. wireless operation of Deutsche Telekom AG. By the end of the first quarter of 2010, approximately 150 million mobile customers were served by the mobile communication segments of the Deutsche Telekom group - 33.7 million by T-Mobile USA - all via a common technology platform based on GSM and UMTS, the world's most widely used digital wireless standards. T-Mobile USA's innovative wireless products and services help empower people to connect to those who matter most. Multiple independent research studies continue to rank T-Mobile among the highest in numerous regions throughout the U.S. in wireless customer care and call quality. For more information, please visit http://www.T-Mobile.com. T-Mobile is a federally registered trademark of Deutsche Telekom AG.