We have identified five different directions emergency service organizations will take when moving forward in managing this technology. First, they can do nothing. These organizations are either satisfied with their existing technology, do no have a budget to acquire new technology, or do not believe any new technology will significantly enhance the way in which they communicate today. Second, they can invest into newer technology than what they have today but not take advantage of the very latest and most expensive systems. These organizations either are being cautious about adopting new technology too early, have new budgets that only warrant moderate improvement, or make a split investment with their field force (some officers or departments receiving better technology than others). Third, they can invest into the very latest technology. These organizations are typically very well funded and can afford such an investment. In these cases, there are still potential consequences from dealing with vendors who are incompetent or too poorly established to survive or from implementing immature technology that may not work adequately, conceivably causing even more communication problems than existed previously. There is also a danger that if the total fees for the solution are high, and cutbacks happen, the original upfront investment (devices, software, activation fees, etc.) could be lost. Fourth, they can cut back existing services. For example, we saw a few emergency services stop carrying pagers and activate the paging functions available through their cell phone and cellular provider. Although coverage issues were less effective at times (some times drastically less effective) and messaging was even further challenged with poor in-building penetration, the overall cost per month was decreased by a few dollars per field force worker. Fifth, they can laterally switch technologies. Emergency services that use pagers have found it difficult to find a stable paging carrier. PageNet, Arch, WebLink Wireless, Metrocall, SkyTel (Worldcom), etc. have all been in and out of bankruptcy in the last several years. This has caused serious fluctuations in customer service reliability as well as network reliability at times (with a few exceptions). However, most of these organizations have reorganized under Chapter 11 and appear to be emerging with significantly more stable and stronger financial and business models, new devices with more capabilities, leaner and more educated sales teams, etc.