Spectrum Wars Intensify As engineers have discovered how to make spectrum in the higher reaches of our radio spectrum useful for purposes no one had thought possible, public safety, along with others who needed it, were assigned some of the spectrum, but by no means enough to satisfy the needs of everyone. Now it seems decisions to re-allocate spectrum are being made more and more by attorneys and other officials with no understanding or regard for the implications of their actions. When FirstNet was established by Congress in early 2012, the public safety community was forced to accept a give-back of the television spectrum then being used by both public safety and business radio users in eleven major cities and their suburbs.

Congress explained that in order to have spectrum for broadband, the public safety community would be required to give back some of its spectrum. However, as I a wrote in an earlier Advocate, this requirement will place a burden on the public safety and business communities now using that TV spectrum. It appeared as though Congress honestly believed what one vendor reportedly was telling it, and that is that push-to-talk over LTE is only a few years away, therefore it won’t be a problem to relocate these agencies to FirstNet by 2022. Read the entire article here

5G Expected to Support Mission Critical Communications, but Narrowband Remains Essential – Telecommunications Magazine Jun 19 17:00 As Mission Critical LTE becomes fully functional, a unified approach is essential, warns ETELM Director Now is an exciting time to unify legacy and new technologies for Mission Critical Communications (MCC) to ensure that users retain existing functionality whilst adding new advanced LTE services, says Paul Ward, International Sales Director for ETELM, a leading manufacturer of advanced Mission Critical communications infrastructures. Topics Channels read more

AT&T and FirstNet Advancing First Responder Network – ATT.com via Google Alerts Jun 19 15:25 AT&T and FirstNet provided U.S. states and territories with individual State Plans to enable the rapid deployment of the FirstNet network for America’s …

FirstNet: Opt-Out States Should Have Vendor Contracts Before Submitting Alternative Plans – MissionCritical Jun 17 10:03 During several meetings, FirstNet reiterated that the draft order’s decision not to require an opt-out state to have in place an executed contract with a vendor prior to submitting an alternative plan to the FCC could have disastrous consequences for the network and public safety. read more

SAFECOM Offers Grant Guidance for DHS Opportunities – MissionCritical Jun 16 10:04 The SAFECOM program released its annual guidance on 2017 grants. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this month released $1.6 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2017 notices of funding opportunities for 10 grant programs. read more

AT and T, FirstNet Officials Detail Public-Safety LTE Priority, Pre-emption Capabilities – MissionCritical Jun 15 13:03 AT&T and First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) officials detailed aspects of the priority and pre-emption capabilities for the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) during a panel at the 2017 Public Safety Broadband Stakeholder Meeting. read more

Motorola Solutions to bring LTE products to FirstNet – Telecompaper via Google Alerts Jun 15 02:15 The company will also deliver a suite of mobile apps, such as mapping and messaging, built specifically for the needs of public safety. The suite will …

5G Will Provide Major Benefits For Mission Critical Communications, But Narrowband … – NewsLocker via Google Alerts Jun 14 19:35 A unified approach to Mission Critical Communications is essential now and in the future as Mission Critical LTE becomes fully functional, warns …

FirstNet: The long-awaited public safety broadband network is underway – Fire Chief via Google Alerts Jun 14 18:30 From the very beginning, the concept of a dedicated broadband spectrum for public safety encountered significant obstacles. Announced by telecom …

AT&T, FirstNet trigger backlash from Rivada over states’ core networks – FierceWireless via Google Alerts Jun 15 16:35 Rivada Networks, which is still trying to compete for states’ FirstNet …

Huawei, Telefonica launch Chile-based NB-IoT Open Lab – Telecompaper via Google Alerts Jun 15 04:10 Huawei and Telefonica have joined forces to open an NB-IoT Open Lab for the development of products and applications related to Narrow Band …