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Former Homeland Security Chief Slams Interoperability Progress

"To be five and half years after 9/11 and be no further toward a national, broadband, interoperable communication system in my judgment is inexcusable."

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge Wednesday called for the creation of a nationwide public-safety communications network.

Ridge, U.S. homeland security director from 2001 to 2005, said radio spectrum currently earmarked for sale to commercial communications companies should be set aside for police, fire and emergency responders. He also sharply criticized the lack of progress on interoperable emergency communications since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"To be five and half years after 9/11 and be no further toward a national, broadband, interoperable communication system in my judgment is inexcusable," Ridge said in an interview with Government Technology Magazine.

Ridge supports a proposal by Morgan O'Brien, co-founder of Nextel Communications, to create a nationwide broadband public safety network from a slice of spectrum in the 700 MHz band that is scheduled for auction in 2008. Instead of selling the spectrum to private companies, Ridge advocated placing the bandwidth in a public trust.

"You've got the spectrum. You've got the bandwidth. It's out there. Congress wants to sell it commercially, and once it's sold commercially, it's gone," he said. "Why would we not -- in a post 911 world -- want to create a nationwide, broadband network for public safety users across the country?"

Ridge said development of interoperable communications systems has been hampered by proprietary technologies and entrenched interests. But the real responsibility rests with political officials, he added.

"At the end of the day, it's still not so much the private sector. It's up to the political secretaries and the FCC to say, 'Enough is enough.'"

Ridge, who now serves as senior adviser to Deloitte's state government practice, visited Sacramento Feb. 14 to deliver a keynote speech to the California Public Sector CIO Academy, a two-day training seminar for government IT professionals.