A Verizon Communications, Inc., spokesman said he did not have more information today on the carrier’s provisioning of preemption as part of its public safety broadband offering. On Tuesday (TR Daily, Jan. 9), Verizon spokesman Kevin King said in response to a question from TR Daily about whether Verizon had rolled out preemption by the end of last year, as it said it would do, that “Verizon does offer preemption for public safety. We’re actually about to announce a specific example where we enabled preemption for a public safety customer on New Year’s Day. I can’t share more information on that right now but I hope to be able to in 24 hours.”

Mr. King told TR Daily today that he didn’t have more information at this point. In a blog posting last week heralding the opt-in decisions of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) Chief Executive Officer Mike Poth said that FirstNet is “the first and only network offering priority and preemption, giving first responders their own ‘fast lane’ connection to communicate and share information at all times.” When Verizon announced its public safety broadband offering last August, it said it would offer priority access immediately and preemption by the end of 2017 (TR Daily, Aug. 15, 2017).

Courtesy TRDaily