The National Communications System (NCS), part of the Department of Homeland Security's Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate, offers an important wireless communications capability — Wireless Priority Service (WPS) — to key National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) personnel to enable ongoing communications during crisis situations. Wireless communication services are increasingly vital to the ability to coordinate and respond to crises. Emergency situations such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack can trigger wireless channels to become congested. Emergency response managers, fire and rescue, police, and other NS/EP personnel are forced to compete with the public for the same congested landline and wireless resources. WPS allows first responders, emergency managers, public safety officials, and other key NS/EP staffs enrolled in the WPS program, to have their wireless calls get "priority" status over cell phone calls from the general public. WPS users can invoke the WPS service by dialing ~*272 before dialing their emergency number. Priority users then queue for the next available radio channel in order to complete their call.
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