Looking Back and Looking Forward. As we enter the 21st month of the 25-year contract between FirstNet the Authority and FirstNet (Built with AT&T), the last three of this year’s Public Safety Advocates will examine what has already transpired and what may lie ahead for FirstNet in 2019. As you read these three Advocates, keep in mind that had the contract been awarded to a vendor that was focused simply on building out Band 14 (the public safety spectrum), this vendor would only have been required to have 60-percent of the network built out in metro areas at this point in time.
Instead, the RFP winner, AT&T, offered up all of its existing LTE spectrum plus Band 14. This had a significant impact on public safety communications. First, today, only 21 months into the contract, FirstNet (Built with AT&T) is providing far more than 60-percent coverage in metro areas with full priority access including pre-emption where and when needed. Further, AT&T has stated that as it continues to build out its own LTE network, the FirstNet network will also have access and when it starts building out its 5G system, FirstNet will be part of that, too.
The questions I will ask and try to answer are about Push-To-Talk (PTT), both on- and off-network, coverage that still needs to be completed in metro, suburban, and rural areas, and finally what lies ahead for 2019.
All this will be weighed against goals that created FirstNet: To have a Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) for public safety’s use including full pre-emption. We have not yet reached this goal but it is still in early in the development of the network. Some believe we can come close to achieving this goal but there will be some agencies that do not join FirstNet, at least in the next few years. I have to believe that as these agencies recognize the advantages of fully interoperable communications for the first time in the history of public safety communications, they will join in and this goal will eventually be realized. Read the Entire Post here.
Here are the articles I have selected with the help of Discovery Patterns artificial intelligence
RadioResource Media Group Dec 6 04:35
AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said the company has completed one-third of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) buildout …
Citizentribune Dec 6 02:40
FirstNet is the nationwide communications platform dedicated to America’s first responders and public safety community. It’s being built with AT&T in a …
RadioResource Media Group Dec 5 19:35
With the launch of public-safety broadband networks (PSBNs), mobile and wearable devices will become ideal options for reghters, law …
RadioResource Media Group Dec 4 22:45
Public-safety agencies have established investments in LMR networks and may have relationships with other CMRS (commercial mobile radio …
ZDNet Dec 4 21:00
If you live in the country, chances are you don’t have internet broadband. While the FCC and most major ISPs continue to spin their wheels, three major technology companies are working to bring true broadband to rural areas.
GCN.com Dec 4 19:50
To ensure first responders can securely connect their mobile and wearable devices to the FirstNet wireless broadband public-safety network, the …
Light Reading Dec 1 04:55
AT&T has been building its FirstNet public safety network all year. The company is “six months ahead of schedule,” according to communications unit …
Pacific News Center Nov 30 07:20
… Firstnet’s Director of Federal and National Programs states that Firstnet is a wireless broadband network designed specifically for Public Safety and …
Nov 29 13:22
As a result, cellular carriers, seeing the potential to connect millions and possibly billions of “internet of things” devices, have created narrowband IoT …
Mother Jones Dec 6 02:40
We plan to put the consumer first by pushing policies that protect net neutrality, promote public safety, and provide meaningful privacy and data …
Federal Communications Commission Dec 5 03:45
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau grants a limited waiver of the FCC’s Wireless Emergency Alert rules to facilitate two tests to be …
5G Observatory Nov 30 19:30
for 5G such as the 700 MHz clearance by 2019 (529.9 million GBP), 4G mobile network upgrades (4 billion GBP), 5G Testbeds and trials (200 million …
Benzinga Nov 30 13:20
Fritzsche said, referring to the public safety broadband network. “Optically, we believe this could be a significant contributor to sub growth for next year …
Mondaq News Alerts Nov 30 11:30
… on developing the Administration’s approach to consumer privacy. …
EIN News Nov 29 20:00
However, Kepler’s network currently focuses on delivering wideband and narrowband connectivity. With this launch on the back of receiving FCC …
News Stories World Nov 29 18:40
In order to step forward in collocation and cloud services of hosting market, MLL Telecom, a UK based secured managed network services provider, …
Techdirt Corporate Intelligence Nov 29 08:17
Efforts to reverse the FCC’s historically unpopular attack on net neutrality using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) have been stuck in neutral for several months, but activists are backing one last push in a bid to get the uphill effort over the hump. The CRA lets Congress reverse a regulatory action with a simple majority vote in the Senate and the House (which is how the GOP successfully killed broadband consumer privacy protections last…
National Public Safety Telecommunications Council 