Cities Cut Wireless Chat, Build

CITIES CUT WIRELESS CHAT, BUILD
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Corey Boles corey.boles@dowjones.com]
As debate on Capitol Hill and the Federal Communications Commission continues on how to improve communications systems for police and firefighters, some parts of the country are tired of waiting. Last week FCC Chairman Kevin Martin launched a public consultation on proposals for a national wireless broadband network that would be built by the private sector. The system would be used by both commercial operators and the emergency-services community. For two of the nation's most important cities, however, the time for talk is over. Construction of wireless networks is already under way for use by emergency-services workers in New York City and Washington. Both have taken steps so that their first responders can talk to one another via radio. Now city leaders also are nearing the end of the first phase of testing for state-of-the-art wireless broadband networks.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117807510092589224.html?mod=todays_us_ma...
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