by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 13, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
Those who have followed public-safety communications over the past dozen or so years probably know about the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) and the Public Safety Alliance (PSA). While created for different reasons, these two organizations worked closely together during the four-year run-up to the passage of the bill that created FirstNet in 2012.
The PSST was formed as a public-safety not-for-profit so it could qualify to be designated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the license holder for the first nationwide public-safety broadband spectrum, which at the time was 5 MHz X 5 MHz (10 MHz total) that had been converted from what was then called “wide-band spectrum.” The FCC issued the license to the PSST in 2007, six years before FirstNet. Two years later in 2009, the PSST and the PSA endorsed the broadband technology known as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) or 4G to be used for the Nationwide Public-Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN)…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 12, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
By First Responder Network Authority
Alachua County Fire and Rescue is an all hazards agency in Gainesville, Florida. They benefit from FirstNet capabilities in their everyday EMS operations. FirstNet connects their mobile data computers to gather information while in route to calls. They use FirstNet-enabled smartphones to get priority service in an emergency. The EMS team also uses FirstNet to send health data directly from the ambulance to the hospital. READ MORE
by ECC Editor | Aug 11, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
“911 call takers are gatekeepers for the entire criminal justice system. We need to start treating them that way.”
Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black child, was playing with a toy pellet gun in a Cleveland park when a police car arrived on the scene. Within moments of exiting his squad car, officer Timothy Loehmann shot and killed Rice. The surveillance video of the November 2014 shooting garnered worldwide attention, and Rice remains a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Like the majority of police killings of unarmed civilians, this incident began with a 911 call… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 6, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
In last week’s Advocate, I said one good thing had resulted from the pandemic because changing circumstances influenced more public-safety agencies to join the FirstNet network. I was concerned about both wired and wireless networks encountering difficulties keeping up with the increased load of work-from-home and school-from-home programs that started in March. Since FirstNet (Built with AT&T) is the only network with dedicated spectrum for public-safety broadband, I concluded that FirstNet would have a decided advantage if there were network slowdowns or other disruptions on other networks…
by ECC Editor | Aug 6, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
Apps like Uber or Lyft can find you easily for a ride to the airport. So why is getting help to get to a hospital in an emergency so much more complicated?
The authors of a new editorial in JAMA Cardiology say technologies used by ride sharing and even pizza delivery operations are more advanced in some communities than those used in the life-and-death circumstances managed by local 911 centers. But, they point out, things are changing… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 6, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
Public safety should retain control of its 50 MHz of 4.9 GHz spectrum—airwaves that the FCC is considering for at least some commercial use—through an allocation to the FirstNet Authority, according to the newly formed Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA).
“We’re concerned that public safety is going to lose spectrum that we might need,” Jeff Johnson, CEO of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and former vice chairman of the FirstNet Authority, said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “[The PSSA was] created to provide a voice to public safety, saying, ‘We think that the 4.9 GHz spectrum needs to remain with public safety’—that’s Position 1…
