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GETS, WPS Subscriber Advisory for Inaugural Weekend Arlington, VA. December 22, 2008 - With the Presidential Inauguration less than a month away and an estimated 2 to 4 million people expected to attend Inaugural events in the nation’s capital from January 17-20, 2009, the National Communications System (NCS) is advising all subscribers of the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) and Wireless Priority Service (WPS) to test their subscriptions and verify their telephone numbers before the Inaugural weekend. CTIA-The Wireless Association® and its member companies recently issued a notice advising Washington, DC area residents and visitors to be prepared for delays when using mobile devices during the Inauguration due to network congestion. As a result, calls may fail and users may have to redial. GETS and WPS provide priority communications to the nation’s emergency response personnel under a variety of conditions. GETS uses telephone lines to route priority calls to Federal, State and local users, first responders, and owners/operators of the nation’s critical infrastructures. WPS is the wireless partner to GETS and provides priority access for registered wireless users. The NCS urges GETS and WPS users to reacquaint themselves with the dialing instructions printed on the back of their calling cards. The NCS also encourages users to continue to attempt to connect using GETS in the event that calls do not go through immediately. For those subscribers using WPS, the NCS reminds subscribers to wait 30 seconds to determine if a WPS call is successful. WPS is designed to delay connections for 30 seconds in order to secure a radio channel for priority users. If the call is unsuccessful after 30 seconds, users are advised to redial. The NCS recommends that WPS subscribers always use GETS to place a call. The combination of WPS and GETS allows priority calls on both the wireless and wired telephone network. For more information on the GETS and WPS programs, visit
http://gets.ncs.gov and http://wps.ncs.gov Questions or comments concerning this site? Please contact the webmaster. |
             
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