Dropped calls, begone: AT&T expands feds' Wireless Priority Service to Canada

American carriers have had Wireless Priority Service in place for several years now, giving government officials and first responders improved access to potentially overloaded networks in the event of an emergency or high-density gathering -- but historically, that service has been restricted to American soil. With the Winter Olympics coming right up in Vancouver, AT&T figured it'd have quite a few G-Men strolling north of the border, so it has worked with Rogers this month to roll out priority access for devices roaming in Canada that are already authorized for the service. In a nutshell, that means VIPs strolling around the luge circuit will be able to get through (and stay through) if the crush of humanity gets too much for the poor, overworked cells to handle. And no, you can't sign up for it, so don't even ask.

[HydroRage Posted Jan 30th 2010 10:13PM]

AT&T ripping off America and its people.

[HydroRage Posted Jan 30th 2010 10:14PM]

@HydroRage
So Canada BEWARE

[Drybones5 Posted Jan 30th 2010 10:17PM]

I have absolutely NO IDEA what this blog post is about. I read it three times trying to figure out what AT&T is doing in canada.

Can you guys word this more carefully?

[elithegreat Posted Jan 30th 2010 11:21PM]

@Drybones5
Wireless Priority Service is just a service that gives call priority to emergency personnel and government officials during times of emergency, when the lines can be quickly choked up with wireless users.
T-Mobile and AT&T have already released WPS around the U.S.A. and VZW slowly followed.

So basically AT&T is partnering with Rogers in Canada (since the Olympics will be held there) and they're making sure that the WPS they provide to their "VIPs" here in the states will be extended while, whomever they are, are up in Canada.

[NKTizzle Posted Jan 31st 2010 7:00AM]

@elithegreat

VZW has had WPS since 2006. That's when the government signed the contract and the funding was in place...

[Fred S Posted Feb 25th 2010 8:54AM]

@Drybones5

In a nutshell: In the US, the FCC mandates that the towers have the ability to prioritize phone calls. That way, during emergencies FBI and Fire Fighters etc can make phone calls without risking "All circuits busy try later" etc or dropped calls. What this article is stating is that AT&T is working with Rogers to get that same system implemented in Canada.

[Bla1ze Posted Jan 31st 2010 1:01AM]

As a Canadian I probably should care about this but, I don't.

[Peter F Posted Jan 31st 2010 11:16AM]

@Bla1ze
Why should you care less? Do you mean you should care more?

[Sean76 Posted Jan 31st 2010 6:17PM]

Hmm, I wonder if this has anything to do with ipad commercials being run through the whole Olympics....????