The FCC should consider paging services as it develops a redundan...

to broad geographic coverage, high reliability and low cost,” the firm said. After Hurricane Katrina, one-way paging and 2-way text messaging were “among the most reliable methods of electronic communication available,” said Mobile USA. The storm interrupted operations at 291 of the firm’s towers along the Gulf Coast, bu USA Mobile restored ground-level service throughout most of the area within 48 hours, enabling first responders to “communicate when other wireline and wireless networks were not functioning,” the firm said. USA Mobile said its system’s design ensures operation in crisis because: (1) Its narrowband PCS network simulcasts messages from multiple towers, easing the impact of a service interruption at one location. (2) The one-way paging network relies on satellite communications to backhaul traffic to each tower, and the 2-way paging network relies on satellite to backhaul traffic to and from each tower. This leaves paging services far less dependent on wireline infrastructure than most cellular services. (3) Paging antennas are located far higher on towers than cellular ones, so paging signals travel farther. (4) The paging network operates at higher power than cellular, enabling wider coverage and deeper penetration into buildings. “The comparatively low prices of one-way and 2-way paging devices and monthly service plans enable federal, state and local government agencies facing budget pressures to equip emergency officials with reliable communications tools,” USA Mobile said: “The long backup battery power associated with paging services also makes them an important and reliable tool for first responders.” Meanwhile, the Rural Cellular Assn. (RCA) warned the FCC of short messaging service and cell broadcast technology’s capacity limitations. The RCA urged study of integration into cellular handsets of a supplemental reception capability so subscribers opting into the service can receive messages broadcast on the national weather alert radio network. Messages important to all would be received by all, RCA said. Local messages would be received from the National Weather Service (NWS) station closest to the cellphone user, it said: “Such a delivery system would be most effective if the wireless network would dynamically program the Specific Area Message Encoding code that corresponds to the area being sent an alert by a local national weather station into the supplemental NWS receiver in the handset as that handset moves from cell to cell.”