by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Comm Center News
An overnight camping trip nearly turned to tragedy for a group of friends visiting Smith Mountain Lake last month. When one of the friends stopped breathing, the guidance of a 911 operator helped to keep him alive and bring him to safety.
The friends were staying on a small island on the lake near channel marker R4 called Middle Island. After camping overnight and spending some time on the island, Josh George of Hurt, informed his friends that he was going to take a nap. Some time later he became unresponsive…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Comm Center News
FirstNet-AT&T has helped connect ambulances providing mutual aid for areas hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, provided connectivity for coronavirus testing facilities and is being creatively integrated into telehealth solutions, according to Ed Parkinson, CEO of the FirstNet Authority.
Parkinson, speaking at this week’s IWCE Virtual event, said that since March, FirstNet-AT&T has fielded 75 requests for deployables to boost connectivity at locations around the country. Those included both pandemic-related response and other incidents as well…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
A new advocacy group is calling for additional spectrum to be assigned to the FirstNet Authority for exclusive use public safety, saying that the spectrum could eventually help support public safety use of 5G.
In a discussion as part of this week’s IWCE Virtual event, Sue Swenson — a former board member and board chair of the FirstNet Authority, and now founder of the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) — said that 50 megahertz of spectrum at 4.9 GHz, which is already designated for public safety use, should be assigned to the FirstNet Authority to develop a spectrum plan and reserve a portion of the band for public safety 5G…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
Zello, the leading provider of push-to-talk, live voice technology that connects 150 million users globally, today unveils a set of new features to address the communication and collaboration needs of transportation teams. Modeled after walkie talkies, Zello’s push-to-talk app runs alongside dispatch software on both desktop and mobile, so transportation teams can communicate with the push of a button, connecting drivers directly to the first available dispatcher, without crowding channels with chatter from other conversations…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
BFN (Before FirstNet) and before Next-Generation 9-1-1 (NG911), the public-safety communications world was fairly organized. A few companies offered complete systems consisting of base stations, mobiles and portables, and radio consoles. Along with their approved suppliers, they could provide antennas, coax cable, towers, generators, and other elements needed to ensure their systems were built and operated as promised.
Other vendors could and did bid on pieces and parts of systems, and many were successful in convincing some public-safety agencies to break out mobiles, portables, and sometimes base stations from system-level bids. Some Land Mobile Radio (LMR) vendors added features and functions over and above what was included in, for example, P25 standards, so competitors could not meet the same specifications with their products. Thus in the early days, the LMR vendor world was divided into system suppliers and device suppliers…
