There’s been a lot of talk lately about Wireless Priority Service (WPS) and whether this cellular telephone service is good enough for first responders to rely on.
The short answer: WPS isn’t enough for first responders. That’s because Wireless Priority Service was never designed to support public safety. In contrast, the FirstNet nationwide communications network — created by and exclusively for police, fire, EMS and other first public safety agencies — is specifically built to deliver priority service to first responders.
WPS isn’t enough for first responders.
What is WPS (Wireless Priority Service)?
According to the FCC — the agency that oversees Wireless Priority Service — “WPS is a Federal program that authorizes cellular communications service providers to prioritize calls over wireless networks. Authorized users dial *272 on a WPS enabled device to receive calling queue priority. WPS calls do not preempt calls in progress, but provide priority status over [a] cellular communications network.”
WPS was a response to the telecommunications traffic jams that occurred during the 9/11 attacks. Both cellular and landline telephone networks were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of calls on September 11, 2001. This is why the current WPS system allows authorized callers to get priority on their network by punching *272 into their phones.
The Limitations of Wireless Priority Service (WPS)
At first glance, WPS sounds like a great solution for first responders during a crisis. But it isn’t
“This is because WPS was created to ensure that the President and his staff had the ability to communicate via voice over any network during a time of crisis,” said Michael Barnbeck. He is Deputy Director of the Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) — whose members are US public safety professionals — and a retired Police Supervisor with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. “That’s how WPS came about. Its creation had nothing to do with supporting police, fire, and EMS.”
Let’s dig into the specific reasons why WPS isn’t enough for first responders.
WPS Only Prioritizes Voice Calls, Not Data
Today’s first responders use their smartphones and tablet computers to send/receive text, audio clips, photos, maps and other graphics, and videos.
WPS doesn’t provide priority service for any of these communications modes. WPS only supports voice telephone calls, no matter what false claims some wireless carriers may be making.
In contrast, FirstNet has been purpose-built to automatically provide priority service to first responders at all times for all forms of wireless broadband traffic.
There’s no need to dial *272 first.
No Preemption for First Responders
When a crisis is underway, shouldn’t public safety calls preempt other calls on the network? Common sense says yes, but that’s not the case with WPS. As the FCC’s WPS website states very clearly, “WPS calls do not preempt calls in progress.”
There’s a very good reason why WPS doesn’t give first responders preemption priority: It was never designed to. “WPS has five levels of priority, in which public safety comes third,” Barnbeck said. “Remember, WPS was designed to support the White House, not police, fire, and EMS.”
No Dedicated Public Safety Core
Unlike FirstNet, WPS does not have a dedicated public safety service core to manage, prioritize, and protect public safety communications. This is because WPS is just an option grafted onto existing commercial cellular networks, rather than a distinct, separate and dedicated service like FirstNet.
“Unlike AT&T that supports FirstNet, Verizon, T-Mobile and all other telcos do not have dedicated public safety cores and spectrum dedicated to first responders; all they have is WPS,” said Barnbeck. “They’ve done some very creative marketing to say it’s the same, but it’s not.”
How FirstNet Fills the Gaps
Unlike WPS, FirstNet was designed to deliver true priority service to first responders 24/7, in support of all their wireless communications needs. It is secure, reliable, and built upon radio bandwidth that is 100% dedicated to first responders — and no one else.
WPS calls do not preempt calls in progress. WPS only supports voice telephone calls
“This is why FirstNet has priority access to all of AT&T’s spectrum, plus the Band 14 that is dedicated to first responder use,” Barnbeck said. “All of this supports voice and data traffic for FirstNet, whereas WPS only supports voice with limited priority for first responders. FirstNet also supports all of our 7 million devices and their 30k agencies all the time, and the data flow is never throttled. WPS just doesn’t do that, because it can’t do that.”
Why First Responders Need FirstNet
The FirstNet public safety network was created in direct response to the 9/11 attacks on America. One of the central findings in the 9/11 Commission Report was first responders could not talk to each other due to poor communications. This led to people dying when the Twin Towers collapsed, when some of them might have been saved.
This is why Congress created the FirstNet Authority in 2012, to build the FirstNet network so that all first responders could reliably talk to each other.
“First responders need FirstNet because it was specifically built by and for them,” said Barnbeck. “WPS was built to support the White House.”
Why First Responders Need FirstNet Reauthorization
We have seen why WPS isn’t enough for first responders, and why FirstNet is.
This is why first responders across America need Congress to reauthorize FirstNet’s existence for good.
The reason: When Congress created the FirstNet Authority in 2012, they only did so for 15 years. “Congress only put in this time limit because FirstNet was an unproven concept,” Barnbeck said. “Today, FirstNet’s 7 million public safety users know that FirstNet works. This is why its future can now be assured – and needs to be assured — by reauthorizing the FirstNet Authority permanently.”
“After all, WPS could never, ever fill the gap if FirstNet ever disappeared,” he concluded. “First responders nationwide know this to be a fact.”
The Bottom Line
WPS is not built to support public safety, and is not worth risking lives on. WPS isn’t up to the job, because it was never meant to be.
First responders need Congress to reauthorize FirstNet’s existence for good
FirstNet was built to support public safety and save lives. That is what FirstNet is doing across America today.
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