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…
by ECC Editor | Aug 5, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute will develop a framework and process for testing the interoperability and compatibility of Next-Generation 911 (NG911) systems. The work could improve streaming video from emergency incidents, photos of accident damage or medical information sharing. These capabilities would benefit experts assisting 911 callers as well as emergency responders on the scene… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 4, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Adam Geisler, National Tribal Government Liaison (Regions IX-X), First Responder Network Authority
At the tip of Northwest Washington State and south of the Canadian Border lies Neah Bay, a remote peninsula that is home to the Makah Tribe Reservation. The tribe’s unique location means that their culture and customs revolve around the ocean. It also means that the tribe contends with many water-related emergencies, such as drownings, rip currents that sweep people into the ocean, and a looming tsunami threat. For the Makah Reservation’s first responders who patrol the 1,100 square miles of rugged land and surrounding sea, resilient and reliable communications are essential. READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 3, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in partnership with the Department of Transportation (DoT), has selected the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI), a DHS Center of Excellence led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), to develop a framework and process for testing the interoperability and compatibility of Next Generation 911 (NG911) systems.
NG911 refers to an updated version of the current nationwide emergency response system operating on an Internet Protocol (IP) platform that will enable voice, video, photographs, text, and future communications technologies to be transmitted to and by the public and first responders for assistance…
by ECC Editor | Aug 2, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
An estimated 240 million emergency 9-1-1 calls are made from phones in the United States each year, with least 80 percent originating from wireless devices, according to the National Emergency Number Association.
Among those calls are an increasingly unhealthy number of 9-1-1 misdials, many coming from newer models of some cell phones and smart watches with a feature that activates an automated emergency call when side buttons are pressed multiple times — often accidentally… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Jul 28, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
Amid a rapidly evolving technology landscape, how do public safety agencies find out about the latest and greatest options, and best practices on how to implement them? How do tech companies which want to serve the first responder market learn what their customers really need and how to make it real? And how do those two sides find each other during a global pandemic?
