Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: There are always coverage problems and system overloaded How can these problems be remedied?: Public Safety priority during emergencies What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Our first line of communication is the 800mhz system. But, wireless is the next handy tool for our use. Problems we have encountered poor area coverage with cell phones. How can these problems be remedied?: Find provider that has a better coverage area, at a resonable price. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Telephone system overloading during emergencies. Especially wireless systems. How can these problems be remedied?: Become less dependent upon commercial networks What additional services would you find useful?: Consolidated Statewide Public Safety Radio system for State, Federal and Local users Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellphones busy How can these problems be remedied?: priority groups What additional services would you find useful?: National Codes for Nextel radios Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellular wireless degrades with numbers of users, during a major incident system availability low. How can these problems be remedied?: Priority access What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: 1. Commercial paging system is VERY unpredictable - particularly concerning the time lag between sending a page and the page being received by the recipient. Also, we need to be able to have a receipt confirmation and there are no systems (that I am aware) that offer this capability. It is so unreliable that the systems are almost useless. 2. Cell phone coverage in our mountainous community is so sporadic that it is also not a reliable communication method. How can these problems be remedied?: Not my area of expertise. I would prefer to have the experts solve the problem. What we need is a truly INSTANT communications system that is reliable and can be confirmed. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Comercial Wireless systems have ver por coverage in rural America. Comercial wireless servies work poorly along the Mexican Border. How can these problems be remedied?: We use VHF Land mobile radio in rural locations What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: In urban intrface, overloading of wirless networks is common How can these problems be remedied?: See no solution that is cost effective for industry. At times have had additional circuits brought in by cellular companies What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes Unreliable, overloaded. Our public safety radio system is still the primary communications systems. The commercial systems are just tools. How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes, antiquated systems and very very old wirelines have led to many problems in the past and continue from time to time today. How can these problems be remedied?: Federal and State Government pressue on wireline company to spend revenues in rural as well as urban areas. What additional services would you find useful?: Much better PCS - buildout very slow in rural areas, many areas not covered. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: logjam on paging and cellular systems How can these problems be remedied?: dedicated bandwidth to public safety What additional services would you find useful?: high speed wireless for remote access to databases Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cell phones can be overwhelmed during the initial phase of a response. How can these problems be remedied?: By having a consolidated public safety data network in place. What additional services would you find useful?: A data network. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: At times, the system overloads due to numbers of persons attempting to utilize common commercial systems. In addition, numerous areas are not covered sufficiently by commercial wireless entities in order to provide necessary service. How can these problems be remedied?: 1. An emergency services override system. 2. Increase in system capacities. 3. Add tower locations for wireless to increase area of coverage. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Capacity, priority access and quality How can these problems be remedied?: Public Safety priority What additional services would you find useful?: Public Safety tarriffs and inclusion in the NCS GETS system Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Phone calls not going thru on cellular How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cell phones were rendered inoperable during major events (Pentagon Attack) How can these problems be remedied?: Revisit cell phones: frequency or how the towers (transmit/receive) are designed. What additional services would you find useful?: 2 way paging Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: We have to rely upon the PSTN and Satellite Connectivity for 9-1-1 call receipt, delivery to 9-1-1 PSAP dispatch, and respond to Emergency Calls. This is due to the very nature of the Reliability of Satellite Circuits and the lack of a Terrestrial Backbone for Backup. We experience the critical failure and suffer from outages that prevent us from receiving 9-1-1 calls from residents calling for help, and also suffer from the inability to dispatch emergency responders due to the lack of reliable telecommunications services to the Remote Rural Areas of Alaska. How can these problems be remedied?: These problems can be resolved by the development of a Terrestrial Backbone Network Infrastructure. This is a Critical Need, that directly effects National Security. By the development of this network, would benefit both the general public, State of Alaska, and also the Department of Defense and other Government Agencies. The benefits would be both Economic, and also would provide enhanced capabilities for Defense and Public Safety purposes. What additional services would you find useful?: Terrestrial Microwave Backbone Infrastructure, Fiber Optics Backbone Infrastructure or some other Terrestrial Based Theoretical or Advance Technology Solution. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Initial system overloads, effectively result in NO communications How can these problems be remedied?: Priortize Public Safety requests, by utilizing preemptive technology; or partition a percentage of the system for Public Safety use in these emergency conditions. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: The biggest problem is the sudden and massive traffic volume increase. Local COs can become clogged in the wireline networks and cell sites get full and never empty. This results in lots of problems trying to coordinate with anyone where wireline or wireless telephony is the intended communications path. Paging and internet communications fare a bit better because we can tolerate latency in message delivery since real-time voice interaction is not the goal. How can these problems be remedied?: Priority access for emergency services would be one option, but obviously that has adverse impacts for other critical communications by all system users. Overdesign so there is capacity for extreme emergencies would be an option, but who can afford the cost. Putting time-outs on cell trunks might help get more trunking within individual sites. It is common for folks to hang on to a channel for very long periods of time once they get one. If we could force the churn in the cell during peak events, more callers could make more short calls. What additional services would you find useful?: Dedicated public safety/government capacity on local networks without ongoing costs to local taxpayers. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: CREATATION AND IMPLEMENTATION IN EACH STATE CALLED THE "STATEWIDE INTEROPERABILITY COMMUNICATIONS TASK FORCE". IT'S RESPONSIBILITY WOULD BE TO RESPOND W/ INTERABILITY COMMUNICATION VEHICLES TO THE SCENE WHEN LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES REQUEST IT; INCLUDING LOCAL COMMUNITY VOLUNETEERS WITH PROPER TRAINING. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Sometimes the internet would be down due to problems. We primarily use alpha pagers to deliver initial incident reports on the disaster. Sometimes the internet would be down due to problems in our own network. Pagers, like any wireless device are subject to where the person is standing in respect to the signal that is recieved. Sometimes a page is not received. How can these problems be remedied?: We setup a seperate internet connection using broadband provided free by our local cable company. Pager addresses and names were then programmed into the computer. As long as the cable is up, we can use this connection. For the pagers, we have added telephone notices to key personnel and try to contact the individual using either the cell phone, wireline or two-way radio if the party is on-duty. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: At peak traffic times the cell/PCS/Nextel networks have the problem of being busy. While efforts are made to insure network availablility sometimes they aren't. The coverage of these networks does not get into the rural areas. It is by far less than 100%. Public safety services have to cover as much as possible, commercial providers need to only cover where the most revenue is. How can these problems be remedied?: I don't know why a commerical provider would build a system which goes beyond the populated areas because the cost of the "last mile" serivce is usually so great. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes, capacity overload on wireless. Inadequate coverage of PCS. Clarity on analog cellular. Wireline cable cuts. How can these problems be remedied?: Vendors claim emergency services can be given higher priorities on busy networks. Provide additional sites. Improve public safety networks to reduce reliance on commercial systems. What additional services would you find useful?: Provide paging over public safety. Integrate two-way paging and a cellular/digital cellular telephone. Improve power, reception, and coverage of cellular type telephone equipment ie: a 5 watt portable telephone?? Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Inadequate cellular coverage and insufficient system capacity. How can these problems be remedied?: Additional cellular sites and channels. A recognition by the commercial network owners that they have a vital role to play in the delivery of public safety/ What additional services would you find useful?: More responsive technical personnel, willing to go beyond the regular work day/shift when required. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Early in reponse situations, commercial wireless and paging networks become saturated How can these problems be remedied?: There needs to be priority system for public safety jurisdictions in regional events What additional services would you find useful?: Access to private networks like Univerisities or Colleges that have dedicated access to the Internet away from commercail providers Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Commercial networks have a different priority during an emergency; what is urgent to public-safety is not necessarily a priority for them (e.g.: repair of a downed cell site, environmental maintenance of equipment, speed of response, etc.) How can these problems be remedied?: Absent a frontal lobotomy, it is unlikely commerical providers will change. While some issues might involve infrastructure modifications that may or may not be practical, the larger problem is philosophy. Public-safety represents a relatively small (but very demanding) part of their business, and focusing customer service on such a narrow segment of their market may be problematical. What additional services would you find useful?: Depending upon the technology and applications available, a public-safety use can almost always be found that would enhance traditional systems. (An example would be Nextel's direct connect feature; public-safety never really asked for such an application, but try taking it away now.) Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: During the response to critical incidents, the capacity of commercial incidents are relative to population, where critical incidents may require a response not proportional to local population. Example, the largest earthquake fault in world (New Madrid, Missouri) is located in a sparsely populated of the country. If the anticipated earthquake is close to the anticipated 8.2 on the Richter scale, the response for the area will not be proportional to the commercial systems capacity. How can these problems be remedied?: Commercial networks should be designed with First Responder needs in mind, not the local area customer base What additional services would you find useful?: Additional capacity in sparsely populated areas. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Coverage of cell phones. No one service covers all of our city. And durring major events there are not enough channels so you get busy signals continusly. How can these problems be remedied?: More cell sites. Priority channels for law enforcement and fire rescue What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes, esp. with wireless voice. Wireless data seems not to suffer the same degradation as voice (not as many users cluster arround incidents). Lack of redundancy in systems, esp. in alphanumeric paging systems, these systems also do not usually have priority for emer. customers. How can these problems be remedied?: Establish priority access for responders. Implement traffic monitoring and proactive blocking of non-priority users. Deliver stand-alone systems to incidents. Implement better redundancy/diversity in systems design. What additional services would you find useful?: End to end encryption of wireless calls (dificult if the receiver doesn't have a STU or similar). Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Wireless and wireline become conjested and unuseable early into an incident. Paging become slow. How can these problems be remedied?: We attempt to utilize as much internet and satellite as possible for notifications and coordination. What additional services would you find useful?: Some type to priority system access for public safety Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Paging is normally unaffected; cellular and pcs suffer from either internal overload or pstn overload How can these problems be remedied?: priority access, or priority "next channel availability" MAY be a solution; educating the public to stop clogging the networks would be another avenue What additional services would you find useful?: None. Basic service has been adequate for us. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Interruptions and coverage have been problematic with CDPD. How can these problems be remedied?: Additional towers, additional commitment by vendor. What additional services would you find useful?: Lower cost satellite......... Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellphone busy, poor coverage How can these problems be remedied?: Increase capacity, pulic safety priority What additional services would you find useful?: Mobile data Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: At times the systems are over loaded How can these problems be remedied?: More digital cellular coverage What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: The Knoxville, TN County Emergency Preparedness Office could provide absolutely no information as to the locations of designated fallout shelters in the city, when I inquired via telephone. This is outragiously preposterous! I was told it is up to the individual to locate a fallout shelter near his location!!! How can these problems be remedied?: 1)Some agency should address the Knoxville Emergency Preparedness Authorities to urge them to make a database and map listing locations of fallout shelters in the city. 2)Such a database for major cities nationwide should be made available to the public on an appropriate Emergency Preparedness Website. Imagine a radiological disaster and the unnecessary panic and confusion that would ensue simply because citizens were unable to plan routes to designated fallout shelters! This situation is preposterous and we have the tools to remedy it. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellular service in our area is sporadic at best. How can these problems be remedied?: Upgrade the cellular infrastructure in our area, more towers, more providers, more options. What additional services would you find useful?: Wireless data transmission capabilities Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Lack of coverage in all areas of our responsibility How can these problems be remedied?: More or better cell sites What additional services would you find useful?: Satellite access at a reasonable price Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Many if not all of the times during a major disaster we use our radio system and cell phones. It seems that when a large incident happens the 1st responder groups can not get on their cell phones because the cell phone towers are tied up at the scene or in the general area with the public in general using their cell phones and blocking the cell telephone towers or in some instances the systems overload and just kick yhe caller (command staff) off of the tower and communications can not be restored because the general public has the towers blocked out with their normal calls. How can these problems be remedied?: The cell phone companies or the FCC need to make a telephone frequency band for 1st responders where the general public can not cause or block out 1st responder cell phones, or the the telephone companies or manafactures need to make a phone or phone chip that allows first responders access to the lines or if someone is going to get removed from an active line then it needs to be persons other then the 1st responders or Command Posts. What additional services would you find useful?: We are going to work out a system of radio interoperbility and then find a way that it can be purchased by the different sizes of departments. We dispatch for 23 different Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Topographic problems associated with a rural county in mountiness terrain. How can these problems be remedied?: Portable site repeaters. What additional services would you find useful?: Not sure. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellular wireless phones are useless during an emergency because they are at over 100% capacity and you can't make calls. The same can be true of the wirelines. How can these problems be remedied?: Exclusive use by emergency responders made available by electronic means. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cell sites unavailable. How can these problems be remedied?: Priority to law enforfement. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: We are currently puchasing a new paging system. How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: a. Both wireline and wireless systems are overloaded - calls blocked; b. Absence of diverse and redundant routing to PSAP.LECs neither plan for or are anxious to provide same, cost are excessive and such routing should be the responsibility of the LEC to every PSAP! How can these problems be remedied?: a. Make priority access of system easier for PSAP to implement, major cities are not he only sites of disasters which overload systems; b. regulate responsibility to LEC for redundant and diverse routing to PSAPS as recommended years ago! What additional services would you find useful?: Nation wide implementation of Wireless as required by FCC in 94-102; regardless of cost recovery status of state involved. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: During our recent 11 alarm fire at Santana Row in San Jose. Our IC for police had continual problems connecting to the PCS network to relay non-urgert requests over the cellphone system. Emergency/Urgent messages were relayed primarily over conventional analog radio systems that worked however were very congested with traffic. How can these problems be remedied?: Broadening our capabilities by using satalite and possibley Voice IP technolgy. What additional services would you find useful?: Resonalbe cost solutions that could be used during emergnecy situations. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: No. How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: More wireless tower locations to access remote areas that we serve. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Busy signals or loss of coverage. How can these problems be remedied?: Addition of towers in our area. Prioritizing our communications deivces above civilian's 7-digit calls or nextel direct connect What additional services would you find useful?: the services that i answered 'no' to their familiarity Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: For the most part, the commercial networks that we rely upon have met our expectations for reliability. However, we will not rely on commercial networks as our PRIMARY means of notification and/or communication with first responder personnel. The commercial networks are only used for supplementary information dissemination. How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Priority access to voice and data via cellular (CDPD) would be nice. Guaranteed minimum service levels from commercial network providers would also be useful, and would need to be established before we would rely upon these networks for any mission-critical communications. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Commercial networks become saturated and because of that useless. How can these problems be remedied?: The problem is inherent to the system and probably not fixable in any kind of practical manner. What additional services would you find useful?: Public Safety agencies need there own enterprise multi-agency wireless infrastructures. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: No How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: system delays caused by capacity, delayed dial tone, outages caused by weather How can these problems be remedied?: better response by repair crews, priority preemption What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Lines become busy, cellsites busy out How can these problems be remedied?: Use in house radios What additional services would you find useful?: A non-busy link from the incident site back to dispatch Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: None Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Fortunately we have not had any communication break downs. We do utilize our radio systems (DTR / VHF) mostly but the commericial products do enhance our systems. How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cells hard to get on during volume uses How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Limited capacity of cellular network and limited coverage How can these problems be remedied?: Realization of public safety role of the commercial networks What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: They busy out or just do not work with heavy use How can these problems be remedied?: I do not know of a remedy because profit margin neccessity What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Dead spots or poor reception How can these problems be remedied?: possible use of satellite communication What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: YES, TRAFFIC OVERFLOW. DENIAL OF SERVICE ON CELL SITES How can these problems be remedied?: PRIORTIZE LAW ENFORCMENT AND PUBLIC SAFETY ACCESS TO WIRLEINE AND WIRELESS SYSTEMS What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes, overloading of cell/PTT commercial systems How can these problems be remedied?: Provide for precedence calling linked to various responders/services What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Voice cellular comnmunications often overloaded to the point of being ineffective How can these problems be remedied?: Significantly gerater capacity or more practical - preferential service to critical public safety users What additional services would you find useful?: More rebust and reliable commercial services Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Circits overloaded during emergency phase. How can these problems be remedied?: Use private radio or priority as proposed by GETS What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes, Cellular system busy, paging system delays How can these problems be remedied?: Dedicated Public Safety system What additional services would you find useful?: Secure wireless internet access, access to realtime satelellite imaging. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Paging systems become too slow to deliver the page. Cell systems become blocked and unavailable unless we tie them up as well. We do not have priority access to the paging or the cell systems. How can these problems be remedied?: No. What additional services would you find useful?: Priority access to paging and cell systems. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Primarily wireless overload-- circuits busy, interference between ESMR and PS trunk. This is worseninbg as more agencies go to regional trunk. How can these problems be remedied?: Switching from ESMR to cellular/pcs carriers What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Network overload at time of emergency How can these problems be remedied?: Give priority to emergency services What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Busy, congested, How can these problems be remedied?: Priority What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Network overload typical; also limited wireless coverage in rural areas How can these problems be remedied?: Restricted use during major events/ priority status assigned to PS cell phone numbers. More towers (item 2), What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Problems have been "encountered" primarily in an exercise environment. How can these problems be remedied?: Cellular on wheels (COWs) with priority service given to public safety agencies...for wireless telephone calling. For wireline calling, Telecomm Service Priority (TSP) has been applied for to cover the 9-1-1 circuits, but not administrative lines. What additional services would you find useful?: As mentioned above, TSP for administrative/coordination phone lines. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: our agency doesnt keep up on new technology, and we have very scattered networks. How can these problems be remedied?: have the people in charge get with new technology, rather than living in the 60's What additional services would you find useful?: satellite, internet etc. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Coverage is a problem with cellular and voice radio, as well as pagers. How can these problems be remedied?: Additional frequency spectrum for public safety operations Additional infrastructure from cellular carriers What additional services would you find useful?: Interoperability with other responders radios. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: public safety priority access to wireless services Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Wireless networks congest immediately upon public notification or awareness of any major event (earthquake, terrorist act etc). How can these problems be remedied?: Greater willingness on part of regulators, or wireless network operators to limit network access from public, and protect capacity for emergency service providers. What additional services would you find useful?: pre built wireless conference bridges that could be accessed as needed - simply dial in & join a pre made regional or 'by service' conference call as required. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: There are areas of poor coverage on all of the Cellular/PCS networks in our area. How can these problems be remedied?: Have the carriers work with local agencies to identify and improve coverage. Make the carriers more approachable! (try and call Cingular and complain about coverage!) What additional services would you find useful?: Higher speed internet access via wireless (faster CDPD!) Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Our cable uplink, although we haven't had an emergency need to use it, hsa never been dependable. How can these problems be remedied?: increased support by vendors What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Wireless failures and pager failures How can these problems be remedied?: Priority given to public safety systems What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: System inop due to failures & overloading. How can these problems be remedied?: Economically not possible. What additional services would you find useful?: Absolute Priority, that bumps off non-priority users, not a wait in line sequence! Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: WTC cell systems down How can these problems be remedied?: Redundancy What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Coverage is an issue at times How can these problems be remedied?: Increase coverage What additional services would you find useful?: enhanced wireless bandwidth Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Coverage is an issue at times How can these problems be remedied?: Increase coverage What additional services would you find useful?: enhanced wireless bandwidth Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Occasionally the wireless and commercial paging networks become full and are no longer able to accept more traffic How can these problems be remedied?: Additional tower locations and / or channels What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellular telephone (Wireless) not available to first responders. How can these problems be remedied?: Cellular priority. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: We know we cannot depend on public-switched wireless. It is a useful adjunct, but we have to relay on private wireless for true emergency communications. Public wireless is a "nice to have" when lines are available to use them. How can these problems be remedied?: Cellular priority, if the cost is not too high. We can't justify spending lots of dollars per year for CPAS if we never use it. Other priorities, including our private wireless network and agency's own mission take higher priority. What additional services would you find useful?: Paging is a good tool. Internet, too. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: During certain events, commercial network service is slow and busy How can these problems be remedied?: No - There's needs to be bandwidth (wireless, inparticular) dedicated exclusively to public safety during an emergency What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellular busy's wireline dialtone delay How can these problems be remedied?: Priority access What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Not available, too busy How can these problems be remedied?: priority access What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Overall accountability with SW Bell (need I say more?) How can these problems be remedied?: They are getting better, yet there appears to be a reductionin force or at least realignment. That is creating challenges in different areas. Re-commitment to customer service, true customer service What additional services would you find useful?: Maybe a user group forum in other service provision areas Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: All sites tied up How can these problems be remedied?: Stay with two way radios What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Paging delays How can these problems be remedied?: More use of our private paging system What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Telephone lines down, Paging system down Wireless ststions down How can these problems be remedied?: Redundancy, Radio switches What additional services would you find useful?: Emergency cell equipment Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Our state as problems with both wireless and paging coverage. How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Inability to communicate via cellular phone during major incidents How can these problems be remedied?: Dedicated public safety bandwidth/spectrum during emergencies What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Intermittent outages from storms, accidental line cuts, etc. How can these problems be remedied?: Redundant and diversified facilities; if one suffers an outage, hopefully the other is operational. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: 1. Failure of paging system (which to some extent employs satellite relays). 2. Failure of wirelss phone system with overloaded tower sites. 3. Dead spots in some areas for both wirelss and pagers. 4. Overloaded trunk lines for incoming calls. How can these problems be remedied?: 1. Provide backup systems for satellite outages. 2. More tower sites. Shared tower sites. 3. Increase number and/or effective range of receivers and transmitters. 4. Establish processes to have calls re-routed during times of overload. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Severe weather can affect wireline. Wireless is useless as too many non-emergency personnel tie it up. Paging is marginal with the cues. Internet is up and down as is cable during such events. How can these problems be remedied?: Emergency responders have priority use for wireless and paging systems during times of emergencies. Such services should be at no charge to gov't response agencies. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: sytem coverage and network overload How can these problems be remedied?: increase of infrastructure and/or Public Safety ruthless pre-emption What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Limited range and occasional outages How can these problems be remedied?: Look for better solution wait for them to grow What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: NEXTEL AND AIRTOUCH PAGING SYSTEM MEETS OUR NEEDS How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Paging technology appears to be going away. It is a fast cost effeective way to notify off duty personnel. How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: nextel and cell phone both are full (system loaded) during use. How can these problems be remedied?: priorty for goverment services on phones and nextel's, was this not the way the system was designed but never implemented. What additional services would you find useful?: gps phones for 911 location. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: lack of understanding of proper operation the the Emergency Alert System by commercial broadcasters, ie: cable, radio TV How can these problems be remedied?: Proper training of new staff & refresher training for all operational staff What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Commercial networks tend to employ the common practice of "load shedding". We therefore do not rely on commercial networks during an emergency, exept in a support or non-critical role. We tend to use our own radio and microwave networks. How can these problems be remedied?: I don't think that it is going to be remedied. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Networks become overtaxed and many system busies are received. How can these problems be remedied?: Priority assignments of users What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Wireless - call failure How can these problems be remedied?: Block calls from info seekers What additional services would you find useful?: laptops and secure networks for portable radio use Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Traffic and network demand has been an issue. Frequent busy's and dropped calls. How can these problems be remedied?: Provide Public Safety first responders priority access during emergencies. What additional services would you find useful?: Priority Data services. GPRS, CDPD, etc. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Wireline phone services have a single point of failure at the Point-of-Presence (POP) as directed by Judge Green in 1984. The Wireless phone services also connect to other services at the POP. In addition, cell sites must be connected back to a central office switch. Usually all the sites of one company in a city are connected to one such central office. 140 West St CO was that common point of failure in NYC for Verizon wireless and the POP for all long distance service. How can these problems be remedied?: Broadband companies have many colocation points throughout a city. These companies are not bound to a single POP per area code. Voice over IP services (VoIP) restored telephone service to many City of New York facilities. Critical locations should have alternate service on divergent technologies rather than just physically divergent lines. What additional services would you find useful?: Easier and more cost effective access to broadband 10/100Mbps service. This should become the universal access issue for the future. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Paging is erratic. CDPD Network up and down. How can these problems be remedied?: More reliable vendors. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Priority on cellular and Nextel will always be an issue. How can these problems be remedied?: Perhaps the recent actions by the FCC will allow federal, state, and local government personnel to have priority access to wireless devices. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes, overloading due to high demand from non-governmental users How can these problems be remedied?: Priority for governmental users, which should include local government public safety agencies. What additional services would you find useful?: High-speed wireless data services. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: cellular service busied out during a major event How can these problems be remedied?: Don't rely on commercial services for critical communications during a major event. What additional services would you find useful?: more spectrum for public safety use Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Dead zones and cell system is taxed during serious incidents How can these problems be remedied?: expanding this system What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Wireless communications lack emrgency capacity - cellular becomes useless in many situations. How can these problems be remedied?: Priority identification for Police/EMS cellular phones allowing them to prempt non-prioity users. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: No How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Wireless data transmission; Real time Weather over wireless communication links; Ability to move between UHF and VHF frequencies to communicate with the agencies with whom we ineract on emergency incidents. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Lack of access priority to cellular channels. How can these problems be remedied?: Some form of access priority for emergency purposes and embedding of short messaging services (SMS) in cellular/PCS systems to off-load voice requirements. What additional services would you find useful?: SMS. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Overload of systems How can these problems be remedied?: Money for expansion What additional services would you find useful?: Unknown Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Paging systems provid limited coverage/reliability. Wireline systems have been down at times. Wireless systems become overloaded-direct 911 callers to non-local PSAP. How can these problems be remedied?: Pagers-better cell site coverage. Wireline-better pre-planning/diligence when digging. Wireless-Build-out wireless 911 system to connect local. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: None of the commercial carriers currently offer a sufficient bandwidth at a reasonable price for Mobile Wireless Communication. How can these problems be remedied?: The carriers need to move to at least 3G and offer Public Safety: 1. Proper Coverage 2. Sufficient Bandwidth 3. A reasonable for service 4. Priority (over civilians, cell calls, etc.) especially during emergency indicents. What additional services would you find useful?: Virtual Private Networks. More Bandwidth. Connectivity to our network from anywhere in the country. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: When using commercial paging systems they are not always reliable. A supplier will shut down a network for repairs and not notify us. They do not understand or are not interested in the urgencies of emergency dispatching. How can these problems be remedied?: Be more sensitive to the needs of Emergency Dispatch systems. What additional services would you find useful?: Commercial systems are used as a possible backup only. Our radio and in-house paging systems are used as primary method of notification and communications. There is no commercial system out there that is reliable enough when it comes to life and death matters. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: On some occasions problems with cellphones How can these problems be remedied?: Find a carrier that has enough capacity What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: poor coverage particularly in canyon areas within the City How can these problems be remedied?: Additional coverage What additional services would you find useful?: Satellite Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Overloaded or unreliable. Areas with no reception How can these problems be remedied?: Increased or dedicated cell sites Government only satelite What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Wireless systems have a tendency to become overloaded and not have enough capacity during emergency situations. This causes delays in communications or the inability to communicate at all. Wireless systmes do not necessarily provide needed coverage in the areas needed by first responders especially in rural areas where there may not be a high demand for the service. How can these problems be remedied?: I believe that the installation of Public Safety communications networks is the solution. The demands of a public safety communiations system can not met by an entity that is attempting to be a service provider to every one. There is no guarantee that that public safety will receive priority on these systems during emergency situations. What additional services would you find useful?: Expanded, accesible, low cost satellite coverage to connect infrastructure. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes. Overloaded circuits, cannot get a line. Commercial networks are down. How can these problems be remedied?: Priority usage codes so that emergencies can take over the circuits What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Early problems included long delays in paging and cell phone system busy. How can these problems be remedied?: Expanded coverage with existing providers, changing or adding providers. What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: No priority for public safety delays in system use. System overloads loosing service. No reduntant systems. How can these problems be remedied?: Created Pulbic Safety Priority system. Build reducndancy in the systems What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellular is overloaded during major incidents How can these problems be remedied?: Require cellualr carriers to give public safety phones network priority What additional services would you find useful?: More public safety spectrum- require TV to give up unused channels in urban areas like Chicago. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellular totally overloaded, long restoration on wired How can these problems be remedied?: more telco staff, higher priority for public safety lines What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Our CD/PD is fine. However, cell phone, and internet become quickly overloaded. Pagers such as a "Talkabout" where you can send text messages did very well How can these problems be remedied?: Cell phone usages has to be cleared for use somehow. What additional services would you find useful?: Revamp and redistribute RF frequencies with public safety agencies first to receive necessary band widths. Private sector should come after public safety agencies. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: In our area there is alot of dead spots for cell phones, and pagers. How can these problems be remedied?: More towers. What additional services would you find useful?: Having communication between county, and city departments. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: At times the commercial networks are "busy" and we are unable to communicate. Commercial networks are expensive, and there is no "price break" for emergency operations. How can these problems be remedied?: Allow public safety to have priority on the networks during emergencies. Reduce, or waive access fees for public safety during emergencies. What additional services would you find useful?: High speed wireless internet access. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes ..rural areas with poor coverage How can these problems be remedied?: better cellular coverage What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cellphones jammed,long paging delays due to public info distribution How can these problems be remedied?: Cellphone priority access!!! Priority queuing in paging. In Texas we constantly loose access to long distance during flooding due to switch failures. This has seriously impeded disaster response! What additional services would you find useful?: Federal support for satellite connections during disaster operations Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: 9/11/01 wireline- tied up, unable to get a dial tone cellular voice, tied up, unable to get a signal our CDPD network, also commercial, functioned fine, and kept radio traffic to a minimum. How can these problems be remedied?: COWs, What additional services would you find useful?: CDMA, wireless broad band, etc Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: During some disasters wireline service is severly disrupted and commercial wireless is gridlocked. How can these problems be remedied?: Privite, two-way radio system augmented by wireline and wireless when restored or freed-up What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Commercial systems typically "unavailable reliably" at onset of major emergencies. Emergency either damages/renders unusable the infrastructure with long duration for return to service, or the public use of the system overtaxes the capability of the commercial system essentially "shutting down". WE rely on commercial telco for our E-911 database and the telco reporting network (infrastructure). We have experienced over recent years a lack of "system redundancy" to provide continuous service with "trunk lines" are lost through failure or construction incident. We find that the telco is very often unable to switch to a working redundant truck line to make the E-911 Emergency Reporting System whole. How can these problems be remedied?: Either by expanding the capabilities of commercial systems to handle higher peak usage and hardening the infrastructure and providing auxilliary power, by providing emergency government services the highest priority and pre-emption over all other users, or by denying access to all but emergency government services during major emergencies. What additional services would you find useful?: 1. Adequate wireless data services throughout countywide service response areas. 2. Commercial system redundancy to assure immediate back up for the loss of primary infrastructure. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Frequent overloading of wireless systems due to the large influx of users both public and governmental How can these problems be remedied?: Levels of service priority for emergency public safty responders What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes, when systems get busy you cant get out. How can these problems be remedied?: By using private radio networks that are not dependant on public switch gear. What additional services would you find useful?: Mobile data terminals that communicate on both private (RF) and public bands (CDPD) such as esteem modems made in Washington State. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Cross-band communication capability. Lack of available channels. How can these problems be remedied?: Better communication, more solid research on equipment What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Wireless-computers have dropped calls. Lines are unavailable for use because of system overload. Phones go dead because of batteries. How can these problems be remedied?: Have more bandwidth to allow more availability of lines. Develop batteries with greater power (for longer use without recharge) What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Occasional problems with commercial paging system, and reported "delayed delivery" of text pages to key personnel. How can these problems be remedied?: Close working relationships with providers. Systems to capture data to identify "real problems" vs. "anecdotal reports". What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Basic wireline and wireless become overloaded. The only system that has consistently worked is the Nextel direct connect system. It did not seem affected by increased need. How can these problems be remedied?: Create partnership with government and commercial to provide a more secure and/or dedicated system that can be used by emergency responders when needed. What additional services would you find useful?: Perhaps the strategic placement of mobile transmission units for wireless systems, that would be used for rapid deployment or specialized uses to boost the reliability of systems. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: overload of cellular system and sites near emergency How can these problems be remedied?: give priority for cell site capture to public safety phones What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: We move to 2-way for dispatch as that is what we support How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Lack of coordination among the many divisions within our local wireline provider (QWest) has led to several loss/limited service issues over the past few months during the relocation of our communications center. How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Phone line outages at times. Cellular can be busy, non-operational or experience no coverage in rural areas. Internet can have latency or be non-existant. How can these problems be remedied?: Better radio commuications network (county-wide). What additional services would you find useful?: Mobile data in our county. Better cellular coverage throughout county. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: During major responses there are not enough wireless repeaters available for wireless transmissions. Carriers do not prioritize users How can these problems be remedied?: Authorize priority of users for critical public safety personnel What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Access via cellular can be hard without any systems priority How can these problems be remedied?: Priority access for emergency services What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: none Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: The 911 system repair services are great. Any other customer service from a telephone company is always very bad. How can these problems be remedied?: Train customer service reps to be responsive to customer problems. What additional services would you find useful?: Satillite phones Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Outages of wireless networks during storms and severe WX. Poor coverage in rural areas. Telephone isn't too bad, though. How can these problems be remedied?: We don't care! We'll use our existing VHF/UHF radio systems until providers give emergency services better services. What additional services would you find useful?: Ability for public safety to bump business and other users, except those calling 911. (PAS) We'll still rely on existing VHF/UHF PS systems since we don't want to be bound by slow service responses. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: To many people on the system, busies up to fast. not enough channel capacity How can these problems be remedied?: Commercial is to make money, however, have priority override for public safety would assist in the all aspects to a major response What additional services would you find useful?: Lower cost for first responders would enable goverment to use the latest and greatest services available. Data and analog over the same system could provide a great service Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Yes. Wireless coverage is sporadic at best in our rural state. Carrier participation is also sporadic (e.g. "One Carrier" is a "willing" stakeholder in identifying needs, testbeds, strategy, etc. while "Another Carrier" wants "cost recovery" identified BEFORE moving forward with discussion, testbeds, strategizing, etc). How can these problems be remedied?: FCC Assistance (Report and Order 94-102 and the requirements on the carriers); PSAP Assistance (Education about the issues so as not to feel "intimidated" about coming to the table and asking the questions/present their case(s) about the respective issue); Fewer restrictions on the carriers who are cooperating (i.e., working with PSAPs; identifying needs/gap analysis; testing the service, etc). What additional services would you find useful?: Top-Down protocols (operational and technical) for these situations. e.g., Urban Search & Rescue teams have such protocols (they have to) for response to catastrophic incidents nationwide (and within their own state)...through FEMA, these protocols are adhered to due to a number of reasons: 1) they work (!) 2) they're tied to funding (reimbursements, mitigation efforts, etc) 3) they're tied to funding (restated to reflect impact on organizations...down to local levels) Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: No How can these problems be remedied?: Further research and development of systems What additional services would you find useful?: a dedicated band for public safety Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: During an emergency all traffic is condensed into a small area. Channel become overloaded and communications fail. How can these problems be remedied?: Design a private network for peak load capcity and coverage that can handle emergency communications under all conditions. What additional services would you find useful?: Location technology that would allow dispatch to find responders even if they are not able to hear or see a call. Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: How can these problems be remedied?: What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: no Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Loss of signal, unable to pinpoint locations via use of 911 by responders. How can these problems be remedied?: Better and more tower locations, GPS What additional services would you find useful?: Question 5 - Have the commercial networks met your expectations?: yes Have you encountered problems using the commercial networks?: Have lost pagers & internet during incidents... How can these problems be remedied?: Our problems are due to our lack of resources/funding provided by our municipality... What additional services would you find useful?: Money