22 July 2004

WASHINGTON—Nextel Communications Inc. has joined the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to develop an AMBER Alert wireless solution.

Following the initial pilot of the service for public-safety agencies in Pennsylvania, Nextel said it hopes to expand the availability of wireless AMBER Alerts to additional customers through the Emergency Alert System. Wireless alerts would be transmitted via text message to customers in relevant geographic areas, based on area code.

“NCMEC has spent more than 20 tireless years working to increase awareness and successfully unite law enforcement in the fight against the disappearance and abduction of children,” said Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer of NCMEC. “Today, we are so pleased to be associated with a technology that will not only assist law enforcement, but also has the capability to extend the reach of AMBER Alerts to millions of mobile-phone users across the country.”

Nextel said AMBER Alerts will be free to customers. The wireless carrier said the integrity of original alert messages created for distribution by state AMBER Alert coordinators will be kept intact, a vital requirement for ensuring that information about the child and his or her suspected abductor is as accurate as possible. Nextel said it has worked with the Pennsylvania State Police and Comlabs—a leading supplier of emergency management communications and warning systems—to construct a platform for providing primary distribution of AMBER Alerts.

Nextel, feuding for months with other mobile-phone carriers over a public-safety interference issue decided last week by the Federal Communications Commission, said it is the only wireless carrier working with state AMBER Alert coordinators and NCMEC on the development of targeted wireless alerts to respond to documented child abductions.

“At Nextel, we believe supporting the efforts of the public-safety community is not an opportunity; it is an obligation,” said Nextel President Tim Donahue at a press briefing this morning.

Nextel challenged the rest of the mobile-phone industry to support the Amber Alert wireless effort.

“We applaud any step in the process of keeping children safe, and this could be once piece of the that puzzle. At the same time, the industry has been working together since March of this year toward developing a national program for all wireless carriers and public-safety officials,” said John Walls, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.

Greater attention has been given to wireless alerts and emergency wireless communications generally in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. However, it is unclear where the FCC and the Department of Homeland Security are headed on the issue. The FCC in August plans to launch an inquiry on possible EAS reform.

The Clinton administration produced a 2000 report advocating the integration of advanced technologies, such as wireless, into the EAS. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), running mate of presumptive Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of Massachusetts, has sponsored legislation to modernize the nation’s emergency warning system.