Senate Bill Funds Interoperability Grants: "6-22-05 - Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) today joined Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) in introducing legislation to improve communication technology for first responders. The Improve Interoperable Communications for First Responders Act will also help to ensure that police, firefighters, emergency medical crews, and other first responders can communicate amongst each other and with emergency response agencies in various levels of government. Senator Collins is the Chairman and Senator Lieberman is the Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee."

Mesh networking in Northern California: "[Ripon] will deploy a municipal wireless network in the next several weeks to enable secure, high speed voice and data communications among first responders and other city employees. The same network will support live streaming of surveillance video and monitoring of industrial computer systems."

Grants to improve rural Colorado communications: "Rural law enforcement and firefighting departments in Colorado will receive about $3.8 million in state grants to build a digital trunk network from the Department of Local Affairs. The funding, which will allow rural communities to build digital trunk radio infrastructure, microwave towers and site equipment, will increase emergency workers' ability to communicate with each other."

North Carolina Has $188 Million Communication Plan To Help Responders, Law Enforcement Agencies: "In a disaster, effective communication can mean the difference between life and death. For example, when Hurricane Floyd slammed into North Carolina in 1999, law enforcement agencies and first responders had separate radio systems. So, talking to each other was as challenging as surviving the storm.
Now, as hurricane season starts next week, the lines of communication have become an especially big concern at the state level. And the state has a plan: The state wants to replace outdated radio systems statewide with the Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders, an 800 MegaHertz digital communication system better known as VIPER.

'What the VIPER will do is put all these systems into one network, an 800 MegaHertz system so we can all talk when lives are at risk,' said Brian Beatty of the N.C. Crime Control and Public Safety.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol is already building and identifying towers around the state for the VIPER system. The plan is to phase the system into communities across the state over the next four to five years. No one publicly disputes the value of a statewide radio system, but there is a debate of who should pay for the system and how. The estimated cost of the transmitters and equipment is $188 million, and that doesn't include the radios."