NG9-1-1, Dispatch, and FirstNet. Let’s Start with a Happy Birthday to 9-1-1
9-1-1 celebrated its 50-year anniversary last week. Countless lives have been saved by the expediency of the 9-1-1 system and those answering the phones who take charge when needed, sometimes calming a hysterical mother or father and then walking him or her through first steps to administer aid until paramedics arrive. Every month we hear stories about how a 9-1-1 operator saved a life by instructing the caller how to do CPR compressions on the chest, to keep air flowing, or some other way to administer first aid until help arrives. While 9-1-1 services have made a huge difference in public safety responses to emergencies, many 9-1-1 centers have not been upgraded for a number of years.
From Citizen to Responder. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column entitled, “Rural Broadband, the Headless Horseman” to make the point that not only FirstNet but a multitude of federal, state, and other agencies have their sights set on providing broadband to rural America but since there is no leadership at the top to organize all of the disparate efforts, it will take a lot longer to solve the digital divide issue than it should. This brings me to another series of services that are interrelated but seem to be moving forward without much in the way of structured management to make sure all the pieces fit together in what citizens will see as seamless experiences in receiving public safety assistance.
It starts with what happens when a citizen calls 9-1-1 and connects to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) that takes and verifies as much information as possible and then passes it over to the dispatch center, which then notifies the first responder community of the type, nature, and location of the call based on the information obtained. It should be noted that sometimes the PSAP and dispatch center are one and the same, sometimes they are co-located, and sometimes they are apart from each other.
The last piece of information, location, is often the most difficult to determine because many calls come from a highway and the citizen has no clue as to exactly where he/she is. Unfortunately, our FCC’s old and now new rules for 9-1-1 location-based services won’t help the location issue much, but that is a longer and different story. Once the call is verified, it is sent to the dispatcher at the dispatch center or in some smaller PSAPs, the person answering the call becomes the dispatcher for the call. From there it is sent out to appropriate field units such as a single police car, multiple fire apparatus, a paramedic unit, or any combination of these. Read the Entire Post Here
Initial Reports Are Positive as FirstNet Buildout Continues
Government Technology Feb 21 19:45, Read More. What AT&T has done is, we’ve really accelerated the buildout of this national public safety broadband network by giving first responders access to AT&T’s existing spectrum, and then also building out their spectrum, the Band Class 14 spectrum, to provide propagation and coverage. Two differing …
New text to 911 system in Maryland
ABC2 News Feb 21 18:20, Read More. This new Internet-based infrastructure allows citizens to send a Short Message Service (SMS) text message to 9-1-1. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that more than 70 percent of all 9-1-1 calls now come from cellular users. This new technology is a vital public safety tool that could …
FCC Commissioner Calls Out States that Didn’t Submit 9-1-1 Fee Diversion Data
RadioResource Media Group Feb 21 16:50, Read More, This is of critical significance to public safety and simply ignoring the commission’s inquiry can no longer be an option, he said. In the letters, O’Reilly said that because the states and territories have either been self-admitted diverters of 9-1-1 fees in the past or guilty of failing to respond to previous …
Micro-Jammers from Cell Detect, Inc. May Be the Answer to Stopping Contraband Cell Phones in …
UCW Newswire Feb 21 13:50, Read More, A prison in Brazil tested jammers and knocked out service to 200,000 nearby residences, so the FCC is reluctant to allow jammers in U.S. prisons, the spokesperson noted, adding that full-fledged cell phone jammers can also interfere with mobile 9-1-1 calls and public safety communication. While the …
FCC Commissioner O’Rielly calls on governors to provide 911-fee-diversion information
Urgent Communications Feb 21 11:50, Read More, In some state, these funds are used to pay for other public-safety-related expenses; in other states, the money has been used to support the state government’s general fund, particularly during cycles when states face cycles that make it difficult to produce a balanced budget. Earlier this month, the FCC …
MissionCritical Feb 21 10:03, Read More, With the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) beginning to officially announce its first subscribers, public-safety users on that network need to think about the data they are collecting and how to store, protect and analyze it. read more
Ajit Pai’s Plan Will Take Broadband Away From Poor People
Wired: Epicenter Feb 21 08:45, Read More, Opinion: Gutting the FCC’s Lifeline program undermines the most vulnerable Americans.
FCC officials blast NY handling of 911 money, threaten loss of federal money
WHEC News – 10NBC Feb 21 00:40, Read More, Members of the Federal Communications Commission threatened to withhold federal funds from New York State over the state’s handling of money meant to go to 911 emergency services, money taken out of New Yorkers’ cell phone bills. The funds are collected as a $1.20 per month state “public safety …
The National Law Review Feb 20 18:15, Read More, The Report and Order exempts 700 MHz low-power Vehicular Repeater Systems (VRS) from trunking requirements, provides rules for testing and documentation of P25 equipment interoperability, and reinforces the principle that all narrowband mobile and portable 700 MHz public safety radios be …
grupoimagim.com Feb 22 02:10, Read More, Also, dare I say it, 2G is a great IoT solution because it’s so well established and the hardware is now really, really cheap. As a seller of LTE modems, most recently the LTE Cat M1 Skywire modem, we get a lot of questions about the eventually-to-be-released NB1. An abbreviation for Narrowband IoT, …
Seymour Tribune Feb 22 01:45,Read More, Communications Officials international. He also served his nation by representing the USCM as member of US Department of Homeland Security’s SAFECOM Executive Committee. He was long-time chair of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council’s Technology and Broadband …
Dish To Spend $1 Billion On Mobile Within Three Years
Android Headlines Feb 21 21:00, Read More, Dish’s plan is to start out by deploying a narrowband IoT network, and work from there to eventually deploy a fully 5G-capable network. Dish’s filing does not go into detail about what will happen from there, but it is to be assumed that the telecom will go on to expand the network and enable actual 5G …
Sheriff’s Office joins priority technology service
clearcreekcourant Feb 21 20:15, Read More, … a technology giving officers priority cellphone coverage. It’s going to make it easier for our first responders to get through in an emergency, said Sheriff Rick Albers. If all the cell towers are busy, it’ll let us make calls. FirstNet is built using AT&T and is the nation’s only public safety broadband network.
Ajit Pai’s Plan Will Take Broadband Away From Poor People
WIRED Feb 21 14:10, Read More, Created during the Reagan administration and expanded during George W. Bush’s presidency, Lifeline historically applied only to landline, and then mobile, phone service. The 2016 FCC modernization established structures for more efficient administration and mechanisms to spur competition among …
Brooklyn Bitcoin Miner Warned By FCC for Interfering With T-Mobile’s Signal
Investopedia Feb 21 13:15, Read More, According to the FCC, the Antminer S5 bitcoin miner caused harmful interference by generating spurious emissions on T-Mobile’s broadband …
Globe readies network for emerging IoT services with 700 MHz band
Inquirer.net Feb 21 09:50, Read More, Globe Telecom is enabling its network to support emerging Internet of Things (IoT) services, making full use of all the 700-megahertz spectrum and other …
Ericsson and Swisscom Demonstrate Network Slicing for Critical Communications
Markets Insider Feb 21 05:10, Read More, In addition to offering mobile broadband services, we will be able to configure dedicated network slices for various industries, meeting the needs of manufacturing, railway, and public safety companies.” To introduce applications for specific industries, Swisscom is planning to evolve its network and …
Federal broadband solicitation could help rural unserved Massachusetts census tracts, says FCC
MassLive.com Feb 20 18:15,Read More, The plans include town-owned fiber networks, telecom-owned cable networks expanded with state subsidies and even hybrid wireless solutions. It’s not clear at this …
Why an Uber can find you, but maybe not an ambulance
13WHAM-TV Feb 20 18:10, Read More, It’s frustrating for the first responders who know that the technology to more accurately pinpoint the calls exists. “There are a lot of things we need to get done in our 911 center. We just can’t afford to do it,” said Sheriff Tom Dougherty. A surcharge on your cell phone bill of $1.20/month generates $185 …
Business Wire Feb 20 16:10, Read More, MELVILLE, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–February 20, 2018– Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (Nasdaq:CMTL) announced today, that during its second quarter of fiscal 2018, its Safety & Security Technologies group, which is part of Comtech’s Commercial Solutions segment, was awarded a strategic multi-year contract valued at approximately $134.0 million from one of the largest wireless carriers in the United States to provide FCC mandated enhanced 911 (“E911”) services. Under this competitively award
The Importance of LTE Interoperability
RadioResource Media Group Feb 20 15:40, Read More, One example is the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International Project 43 initiative, which looked at broadband implications for the public-safety answering point (PSAP). Committees comprised of engineers and public-safety first responders completed the report.
FCC Broadband Availability Data Derided As Inaccurate, ‘Shameful’
Techdirt Corporate Intelligence Feb 20 15:02, Read More, We’ve long-noted how the government doesn’t do a very good job tracking broadband availability and pricing, in large part because incumbent ISPs like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T don’t want them to . ISPs (and the lawmakers paid to love them ) whined incessantly about the last FCC’s efforts to raise the standard definition of broadband, given it only highlighted the fact that two-thirds of Americans can’t get “broadband” (25 Mbps) from more than one ISP. ISPs…
Telcos face another tough year: Report
The Tribune Feb 20 15:00, Read More, Broadband subscriber growth mainly stems from conversion of narrowband subscribers and growing adoption of data in the wake of digitalisation. However, the agency expects industry revenue to remain stable in FY19, although revenue growth would be uneven across telcos. It expects revenue upside …
Nokia Networks Feb 20 12:50, Read More, Secure MVNO for Public Safety: Helping operators offer mission critical broadband over commercial networks]
Ahead of SpaceX Starlink launch, T-Mobile asks FCC to auction satellite spectrum for 5G use
VentureBeat Feb 20 12:00, Read More
While Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been preparing to launch its first Starlink high-speed broadband satellites, T-Mobile has asked the FCC to quickly …
No more penny pinching: Wireless carriers’ capex to surge in 2018
FierceWireless Feb 20 09:35, Read More, And AT&T’s increase is due in part to savings from the government’s recent tax reform and partly due to its own pledge to build out FirstNet’s 700 MHz spectrum for public safety users. Nonetheless, it’s clear that that the tides are turning in the U.S. market, said Dell’Oro Group analyst Stefan Pongratz.
SpaceX gets closer to launching satellite broadband Internet service
USA Today Feb 15 06:00,Read More,Elon Musk’s SpaceX company has gotten approval from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to deploy satellites to deliver broadband Internet across the U.S.
Roses are red, Ajit Pai is tickled. Broadband from SpaceX gets him out of a pickle
The Register Feb 15 06:00, Read More, Musketeers to launch first internet satellites this weekend SpaceX’s plans to become a global ISP took a big step forward after Ajit Pai ” the boss of America’s comms watchdog, the FCC ” gave his blessing for Elon Musk’s biz to pop broadband-beaming satellites into orbit.
Preserving the Municipal Exemption from Federal Pole Attachment Regulations
American Public Power Association Feb 15 04:00, Read More, Several times since 2010, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) has recommended that Congress consider eliminating the exemption public power and rural electric cooperative utilities have from FCC regulation of pole attachments under the guise of facilitating broadband ..