A special federal government telecommunications service that provides National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) users with priority switched voice and voiceband data communications during periods of emergency or crisis. GETS uses existing features and services of the Public Switched Network (PSN) with selected NS/EP augmentations and enhancements. Access to GETS requires a telephone calling card with personal identification number. GETS is maintained in a constant state of readiness to make maximum use of all available PSN telephone resources should network congestion or damage occur during an emergency or crisis. GETS calls receive priority over other traffic through special features such as trunk queuing, exemption from restrictive network management controls and Alternate Carrier Routing (ACR) on approximately 85% of all local carrier access lines. Comparable features provide priority treatment and enhanced routing in the interexchange networks. While GETS calls receive priority for next available path, they do not preempt other traffic. The Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) - High Probability of Completion (HPC) Network Capability standard (ANSI T1. 631-1993) is applied to provide NS/EP call identification and priority signaling.