PUBLIC SAFETY ENHANCED WITH WIRELESS PRIORITY SERVICE

News Release

OTTAWA, November 23, 2004 — The Honourable Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and the Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry, today announced the introduction of wireless priority service (WPS) for use in times of emergency. Wireless priority service provides selected wireless telephone users with top-priority access to the network even if it is heavily congested. In times of crisis, WPS ensures that key public safety officials involved in managing emergency response will still be able to use the wireless telephone system to communicate. This capability is a critical step forward in enabling public safety officials to maintain necessary communications in times of natural or man-made disaster. Canada's wireless priority service will further enhance the capacity of our officials and first-line responders to communicate during times of emergency. This new service highlights our commitment to building a more modern, integrated national support system as outlined in the National Security Policy," said Minister McLellan. "The implementation of WPS by Rogers Wireless puts Canada among a handful of industrialized nations to begin implementing a WPS-enabled critical telecommunications infrastructure," said Minister Emerson. "Industry Canada's role now is to ensure that the assignment of WPS to key decision makers and emergency response agencies moves forward effectively." Rogers Wireless is the first wireless service provider to make WPS available in Canada. "Rogers Wireless is pleased that, with the national reach and superior quality of our GSM network, this WPS service will be available across 93 percent of the Canadian population," said Nadir H. Mohamed, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rogers Wireless. WPS works by giving a limited number of government-authorized wireless phone users priority access to the wireless network. If wireless network capacity is strained during an emergency, WPS ensures that authorized users' calls queue on the next available wireless channel. More information on WPS can be found at http://spectrum.ic.gc.ca/urgent/english/wps.html. - 30 - For more information, please contact: Alex Swann Director of Communications Office of the Honourable Anne McLellan Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (613) 991-2863 Simone MacAndrew Media Relations Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada (613) 990-7023 Stéphanie Leblanc Office of the Honourable David L. Emerson Minister of Industry (613) 995-9001 Media Relations Industry Canada (613) 943-2502 Heather Armstrong Rogers Wireless (416) 935-6379 heather.armstrong@rci.rogers.com

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Date modified:: 2004-11-23

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PUBLIC SAFETY ENHANCED WITH WIRELESS PRIORITY SERVICE

News Release

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