Judging from the 9-11 hearings and many reports by first responder organizations for increased needs during major catastrophic events or INTERNATIONAL Terrorism Attacks of communications, it appears that the average citizenry with personal needs will also need their personal communication available to contact family members, make arrangements for travel, etc. If First Responders soak up all available communication lines, methods, frequencies then the people effected will not have their needed communications.

Yet we must understand that if the citizens tie up all available civilian lines such as cell phone towers then the First Reponders once maxed out will have to take control of those communication systems for official use. This will cause immediate chaos as people become hysterical and ordinary people attempt to do things which they would never normally do, such as run a road block with their cars in order to get to loved ones. This is also a real problem if you need to isolate people who may have been exposed to biological weapons, becuase you need to keep them from spreading it until you can deliver the medicine.

In reading this report:

First Response Communications Are Critical to U.S. Terrorism Strategy.

http://fcw.bitpipe.com/data/detail?id=1086200723_388&type=RES&src=KA_RES_20040626

DESCRIPTION: In this article, the operations chief for all federal response assets at Ground Zero talks about the future of standards-based interoperable communications.

It explains the excessive needs for communication to repsonders as the size of the event is bigger. The larger the crisis the more communication which is needed. In the 9-11 attacks there were condemnation for the unprepared nature of the communication chain by loved ones who had lost family members.

A system could be put in place that limited cell phone calls to 2 minutes, by use of a recording that explained that the limit for phone call was 2 minutes and that there is a restriction to more than two phone calls every 10 minutes. Thus this might solve the issue of having to turn off public use of the cell phones system for use by only first responders, which could cause mass hysteria and worsen the problems.