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The Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) is a White House-directed emergency phone service provided by a division of the Department of Homeland Security. GETS uses enhancements based on existing commercial technology.

1 Purpose of GETS

GETS supports federal, state, local, and tribal government, industry, and non-governmental organization (NGO) personnel during crises or emergencies by providing emergency access and priority processing for local and long distance calls on the public switched telephone network. GETS is intended to be used in an emergency or crisis situation when the public switched telephone network is congested and the probability of completing a call over normal or other alternate telecommunication means is reduced.

GETS is necessary because reliance on telecommunications has been accompanied by an increased vulnerability to network congestion and system failures. Although backup systems are in place, disruptions in service can still occur. Natural disasters, power outages, fiber cable cuts, and software problems can cripple the telephone services of entire regions. Additionally, congestion in the public switched telephone network, such as the well-documented " Mother's Day phenomenon," in which Mother's Day generally has the highest volume of long-distance telephone calls of any single day of the year, can prevent access to circuits. However, during times of emergency, crisis, or war, government personnel and emergency workers need to know that their calls will go through.

GETS uses these major types of networks:

• The local networks provided by local exchange carriers and wireless providers, such as cellular carriers and personal communications services (PCS)
• The major long distance networks provided by interexchange carriers such as AT&T, MCIMCI Inc. is an American telecommunications company, formerly known as WorldCom. It is the second largest long-distance provider in the United States. MCI merged with WorldCom, Inc. in 1998 for US$34. 7 billion, creating MCI WorldCom. MCI WorldCom dropped, and SprintThis article is about the telecommunications company; see sprints for the running term. Sprint Corporation is one of the world's largest telecommunication companies. It is a global communications provider and a major competitor in the American cellular ph, including their international services
• Government-leased networks, including the Federal Technology Service and the Defense Switched NetworkThe Defense Switched Network (DSN is a primary information transfer network for the Defense Information Systems Network (DISN). The DSN provides the worldwide non-secure voice, secure voice, data, facsimile, and video teleconferencing services for DOD Com

2 How GETS is accessed

GETS is accessed through a dialing plan and Personal Identification Number (PIN) card verification system. The user dials a universal access number using common telephone equipment. A prompt directs the entry of the user's PIN and the telephone number. Once the user is authenticated as a valid, his or her call receives special treatment.

3 References

• GETS Web Site (portions of the text in this article have been taken from the GETS site)