[TrunkCom] Here is NEMA's comment on Nextel giving APCO $25 Million.

[iDEN-i95-Beta-Marcel]

Here is NEMA's comment on Nextel giving APCO $25 Million.

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NENA Clarifies Position on NEXTEL Proposal; Nation's 9-1-1
Organization Reviewing Proposal Provide $25M to APCO International


COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 7 -- The National Emergency
Number Association (NENA) announced today that its executive board
is aware that a proposal made by NEXTEL and the Association of
Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) has
been offered to public safety. NENA wishes to inform its
membership that the Association has just learned of this proposal,
and that its executive board, while still gaining knowledge about
the nature of the proposal, has made the following observations:

-- NENA believes a grant to the operating funds of NENA and/or
APCO would call to question the independence of each organization's
FCC and regulatory representation function on wireless and radio
spectrum issues currently, and in the future.

-- Direct grants from wireless carriers to NENA, APCO, or a
controlled organization of either or both organizations raises a
question of independence, and may jeopardize the ability of public
safety to speak in an independent and objective manner in the long
term.

-- It is reasonable and directly foreseeable to assume that both
public safety organizations may have an opposing regulatory
position with NEXTEL and other wireless carriers in the future.
This concern extends to foreseeable radio spectrum issues, as well
as the current Wireless Phase II process that is still fully open,
and likely to have more issues requiring public safety advocacy.

-- An APCO document in the public domain that indicates NENA's
support for Project LOCATE is a supporting consideration for the
NEXTEL proposal is inaccurate. While a partner organization to
Project LOCATE for the purpose of encouraging 50 model Wireless
Case Studies, NENA was not a part in negotiations with NEXTEL or
APCO for the $25 million as proposed in the APCO document.

-- NENA believes it is in the interest of all stakeholders to
continue to work with the U.S. Department of Transportation to
provide a neutral and credible coalition to promote Wireless Phase
II implementation. (See
http://www.nena.org/Initiatives/NENA_DOT/nena_dot.htm)

-- With the foregoing considerations, NENA does not wish to
discourage NEXTEL or other organizations from contributing funds to
the considerable needs of public safety organizations. On the
contrary, NENA encourages that stakeholders convene to establish a
completely neutral and detached governmental recipient of these
funds (TIA for example) that would serve as a granting organization
for the funds donated under by NEXTEL and subsequent benefactors.

-- NENA believes that under those conditions, APCO, NENA, and
other independent stakeholders should provide the actual governance
and control of donated funds to ensure that the public safety
community will receive the maximum and most appropriate benefit
from these funds. This structure would also guarantee that both
NENA and APCO would have real and perceived independence as
regulatory advocates on behalf of their respective public safety
memberships.

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NENA is a public nonprofit educational foundation, organized
under IRC 501(c)(3). NENA's exclusive mission is to foster the
development and implementation of 9-1-1 as a universal emergency
number. NENA has more than 7,000 members, most of whom manage the
7,000 primary 9-1-1 centers that answer and process 9-1-1 calls.
As a part of its mission, NENA also develops recommended standards
and protocol for 9-1-1 services. NENA's international headquarters
is located in Columbus, Ohio.