Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Dog Pound - Nov. 16, 2002

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 04:58:02 -0500

The U.S. Senate has finally confirmed the candidate for the fifth position on the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC)--Jonathan Adelstein, former aide to Sen. Tom Daschle. The
logjam over confirmation was caused by Democrats and Republicans arguing over President
Bush's judicial appointments: the Democrats were holding the judicial positions, and in
retaliation the Republicans refused to approve Adelstein, a Democrat. The recent
pro-Republican elections broke loose the votes need to approve Adelstein. The FCC is now
composed of three Republicans (including chair Michael Powell) and two Democrats.
 
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Add Virginia Beach (Virg.) to the list of cities with Phase II capability--the first in
the state. They just turned on Verizon Wireless customers, and locations are being
displayed on 20 Tiburon CAD positions. The city of 430,000 is working with 6 other
wireless carriers to ramp up Phase I and then Phase II.

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The "#77" story is again making the rounds of the Internet--it's an urban legend. The
story claims you a woman was nearly kidnapped (or worse), but dialed #77 to find out the
car behind her was a police imposter. Other versions extend the story to advise "Dial #77
anywhere to find out if the unmarked car behind you is an imposter." Our list of mobile
emergency numbers shows that only Maryland offers #77.

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A 12-person committee of public safety officials from Oregon state and local agencies met
for the first time Wednesday to begin working on communications interoperability. The
group, commissioned by the governor to work towards interoperability solutions, includes
representatives of the state police, various counties and cities, and some federal
agencies.

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Software developer VisionAIR announced that it has hired Craig Nelson as vice president of
sales, with the mission to, "drive widespread adoption of VisionAIR's public safety
solutions by agencies across the nation, while ensuring the highest quality of client
service." Nelson was most recently president of sales and marketing at competitor Tiburon,
Inc., and he also worked for IBM.

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Whew! The Illinois state Public Utilities Commission has suspended consideration of a
tariff that would have slapped per-call fees onto wireless E911 calls. The narrow escape
(for now) means PSAPs won't be charged 11 cents per call, along with a set-up charge. The
indefinite wait by the PUC will allow a fuller accounting of the numbers--and perhaps see
if cost recovery legislation passes early next year.

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Here's another story, this time in "Government Computer News," on the technology and
funding issues surrounding radio interoperability. The story includes quotes from Motorola
and M/A-Com company representatives on why their systems aren't compatible, and why tying
the two competitors' products together is difficult. The story misses several points on
interoperability, including that it's a people issue, not a technology issue--you have to
<want> to communicate among agencies first, then you find a way to do it. Up to now,
agencies just haven't wanted to do it.

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Members of the Ontario (Canada) regional PRIDE mobile data group have selected Dataradio
Inc. to supply a multi-site mobile data system to replace their 14 year-old gear. The
5-site system will feature Dataradio's 32 Kbps transmission speed, and allow officers in
182 vehicles to not only access law enforcement databases, but high bandwidth-type data
such as fingerprints and mugshots. The PRIDE group includes law enforcement agencies at
Waterloo Regional, Brantford, Guelph and Stratford Police services.

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From: Don Root <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 10:24:49 -0800

The AAA Foundation For Traffic Safety web site shows 5 states with *77 
or #77 services for non-emergency calls:

http://www.seniordrivers.org/Emergencies/emergencynumbersw.cfm

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