Respondents to this study were quick to provide a list of additional functions and services they believed they would need to make this a viable solution for their departments. First, wireless coverage is an issue. Public wireless service providers (paging, cellular, and data) focus primarily on excellent to strong coverage in the most densely populated areas. For example, all carriers will have good coverage in Las Vegas or Phoenix, but will typically not have coverage in most of the state of Arizona and Nevada respectively. Financially, building up wireless networks for more rural areas is typically not feasible for commercial wireless providers. Respondents that have needs requiring expansion into more rural areas reported less effectiveness with the solution than did respondents whose needs remained within more densely populated areas.
Given there is not a sufficient financial incentive for a wireless service provider to expand coverage into these more rural locations, the only way in which these build-outs will happen is through private/public businesses as a means to better protect and monitor their remote assets. In a conversation with Ross Buckenham, President of WebLink Wireless, he revealed that larger organizations do make investments for strategic and expanded coverage for just these purposes on their network. However, the typical emergency service organization is unlikely to have the budget for these types of expansions regardless of how critical a need wireless service coverage may be in certain areas.
The system did a good job of automating and expediting our notification process. It would appear, that unless you are within 10-15 miles of a major metropolitan area in New York, 2-way wireless communications infrastructure is just not in place to support this application.
Roger Fox, Chairman
NYS Federation of Search and Rescue Inc

While the coverage area for your wireless device was comparable to the other wireless devices we have, there were still areas of the State where the unit was "Storing Messages".
Fred Patton, Assistant Special Agent
North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation