Chris Moore recently stepped down as senior vice president at Rivada Networks LLC, which had failed to persuade any states or territories to opt out of having AT&T, Inc., build their radio access networks (RANs) to connect to the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) system being built by AT&T.
Courtesy TRDaily
ORLANDO – Panelists and audience members at two sessions at the IWCE show here yesterday debated whether the public safety broadband network that AT&T, Inc., is building for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) is a “monopoly” and whether there should be interoperability between the AT&T system and those of rivals such as Verizon Communications, Inc.
During one session, Robert LeGrande II, founder and chief executive officer of The Digital Decision LLC, a public safety consulting firm whose clients include Verizon, which has complained because its planned public safety core will not be permitted to connect to the public safety core being deployed by AT&T, said that AT&T will have a monopoly.
“The one thing we don’t want is another monopoly,” he said. He said competition from Verizon is good for first responders. “Public safety wins because they’re going to duke it out for your business,” Mr. LeGrande added. He added that the two networks must be interoperable for public safety agencies to be well-served, including enabling uniform priority and preemption across networks and device interoperability.
But Dick Mirgon, president of Richard Mirgon Consulting LLC, whose clients include AT&T, said it doesn’t make sense to say that AT&T has a monopoly, adding that the public safety community is getting what it pushed for in the FirstNet system – one interoperable network rather than disparate systems that can’t communicate with each other. “This is about one network,” he said. “It is not a commercial network.”
During a session later in the day, Arshdeep Sawhney, senior manager-product management, global products, and solutions for Verizon, also stressed the need for interoperability, including between public safety applications offered by the carriers. “Of course, for this, we need a handshake,” she said. Continue reading
ORLANDO – AT&T, Inc., said today that it is emphasizing the value of public safety Band 14 in the nationwide public safety broadband network it is building for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), while also acknowledging other bands that will be used by first responders. The company also said it plans to eliminate any gaps it has in coverage compared to Verizon Communications, Inc., said it is pleased with the number of subscribers it has signed up so far, said most of its initial construction would be completed in less than four years, and criticized Verizon’s planned public safety core and the fact that it did not deploy preemption nationwide by the end of 2017.
Yesterday, FirstNet announced the issuance of a task order to AT&T to begin building radio access networks (RANs) with Band 14 in all 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia (TR Daily, March 7). FirstNet and AT&T emphasized in news releases the value of Band 14. AT&T plans this year to touch more than one-third of its cell sites to add Band 14 and deploy Band 14 to 95% of the U.S. population over the next five years.
In an interview this afternoon with TR Daily in conjunction with the IWCE show here, Chris Sambar, AT&T’s senior vice president-FirstNet, said, “I think it’s important for public safety to understand that they get what we call the all-band solution,” which includes spectrum in the 700 megahertz, 800 MHz, 1.9 gigahertz, and even millimeter-wave bands. “But they also understand that Band 14 has some unique attributes to it, and I don’t want anyone to think that we’re not rolling it out broadly,” Mr. Sambar added. Continue reading
An authorization bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that would codify many of DHS’s cybersecurity efforts and create a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the department today cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by a voice vote. The Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act (HR 2825) is the department’s first authorization bill since its creation in 2002. The push to authorize the department’s activities originated in the House Homeland Security Committee after Chairman Michael McCaul (R., Texas) gained permission from other committees with jurisdiction over DHS to proceed. The House approved its version of HR 2825 last summer (TR Daily, July 20, 2017).
To ensure adoption of the bill in committee and later on the Senate floor, leaders of the Senate committee encouraged members to withdraw any proposed amendments that addressed divisive issues. The bill is “not completely, but largely, non-controversial,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (R., Mo.), the committee’s ranking member.
The withdrawn amendments included a bipartisan proposal championed by Sens. James Lankford (R., Okla.) and Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) that would have directed DHS to take steps to protect U.S. elections from hackers and foreign influence. Continue reading
Feb 26, 2018 Donny Jackson | Urgent Communications
Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones—unveiled yesterday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona—are approved FirstNet devices that operate on the 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum licensed to FirstNet, according to officials for FirstNet and its nationwide contractor, AT&T.
“By the end of March, first-responder subscribers can use the Galaxy S9/S9+ to tap into the full power of FirstNet,” according to an AT&T press release directed to the public-safety community. “This includes access to critical capabilities, like First Priority, which includes both priority and preemption, so you can experience a reliable, highly secure and always-on connection to the information you need.”
Read full article here: http://urgentcomm.com/smartphones/new-samsung-galaxy-s9-devices-include-firstnet-band-14-support-att-and-firstnet-say
Mar 1, 2018 Donny Jackson | Urgent Communications
Sonim Technologies today announced its new XP8 and XP5S ultra-rugged LTE devices that are designed to provide FirstNet users with new public-safety-centric capabilities, including an interface that supports a module that enables direct-mode push-to-talk (PTT) communications between devices when a network is not available.
In 2013, Sonim Technologies introduced its first rugged cell phone that could operate on the 20 MHz of 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum licensed to FirstNet, which last year contracted with AT&T to build and maintain a nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN). During the past five years, the handset manufacturer’s products have played a key role in more than 100 public-safety LTE trials in 30 states—experiences that drove the development of the XP8 and XP5S, according to Sonim Technologies CEO Bob Plaschke.
Read article here: http://urgentcomm.com/public-safety-broadbandfirstnet/sonim-technologies-unveils-ultra-rugged-firstnet-devices-support-dir
From One IWCE to the Next. It seems as though AT&T has had the FirstNet contract forever, especially since many agencies are already up and running on FirstNet. Yet at last year’s IWCE conference in Las Vegas, March 5 to 9, FirstNet had not yet officially awarded the contract to AT&T. Expectations were clearly in the camp that AT&T would win the FirstNet contract but it was more than a week later that the court dismissed Rivada’s lawsuit, leaving AT&T as the only qualified bidder. Until the contract was awarded, there was always the chance that it would, once again, be challenged in court, but fortunately that did not happen.
At that time, we all expected to wait through the 5-year build plan for FirstNet band 14 before FirstNet would become a nationwide network with pre-emption. However, AT&T gave public safety a huge bonus with the use of all AT&T LTE spectrum and priority from the day a state opted in, followed by full pre-emption, not only on FirstNet spectrum but on ALL AT&T LTE spectrum. Further, AT&T promised that the FirstNet core (the Enhanced Packet Core, EPC) that will be the heart of the network would be up and running by the end of the first quarter of 2018.
This year should be the IWCE’s coming out party for FirstNet. However, as we look back at the past 12 months, is it difficult to comprehend that this year’s conference is the first with the FirstNet Authority and FirstNet Ecosystem up and running. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and all U.S. Territories have opted in and many states and the tribal nations have been meeting with the FirstNet/AT&T team for months now. It is almost anti-climactic for this IWCE to celebrate FirstNet. So many FirstNet goals have already been finalized and AT&T is moving forward with site build-outs in metro, suburban, and rural areas. AT&T has also made it clear that every enhancement to its commercial networks including more LTE sites, in-building coverage, 5G small cells, and whatever broadband technology is deployed during the next 25 years will be made available to FirstNet as well as AT&T’s commercial customers. Read the Entire Post Here Continue reading