by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 1, 2019 | Articles, Comm Center News
By John Hunt, Senior Public Safety Advisor
The First Responder Network Authority’s (FirstNet Authority) Public Safety Advocacy team traveled recently to Traverse City, MI, to participate in and present to more than 230 attendees at the 2019 Michigan Statewide Interoperable Communications Training Conference. The conference gave both the FirstNet Authority and the State of Michigan an opportunity to work to improve communications, interoperability, and information sharing among public safety agencies in and around the State.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 19, 2019 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Ken Bednasz, VP Application Engineering at Telit, Americas.
SOURCE: IoTforall.com
DATE: February 18, 2019
The implementation of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet)—the first nationwide high-speed broadband network for America’s first responders—has opened up a whole new range of opportunities for technology to assist in their mission-critical work. FirstNet is built on an LTE network. It’s the flexibility, coverage and bandwidth of LTE and the reliability and resilience built into FirstNet that are catalyzing the emergence of applications, helping to enable new ways of working for the public safety community. FirstNet is built with AT&T in public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority.
A key example of the power and importance of FirstNet is the increasing use of real-time surveillance and data gathering by drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The benefits of drones are slowly being realized, and they’re being deployed in a growing number of agencies to enhance productivity and to increase safety and security.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 12, 2019 | Articles, Comm Center News
The 800 MHz band interstitial Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released on October 22, 2018 was published in the Federal Register on November 27, 2018. The rules became effective as of December 27, 2018. Some of the key points of the order are discussed below:
- Add 318 new interstitial channels in the 800 MHz Mid-Band, the portion of the 800 MHz band used most extensively for PLMR.
- Direct Commission staff to announce when applications for 800 MHz Expansion Band, Guard Band, Sprint-vacated, and interstitial channels may be filed in the 44 of 55 National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee regions where 800 MHz rebanding has been completed.
- Decline to give incumbent 800 MHz licensees filing priority for 800 MHz Expansion Band and Guard Band over non-incumbents after such an announcement.
- Terminate the 1995 freeze on inter-category sharing of 800 MHz channels, making it no longer necessary for applicants to seek a waiver of the freeze.
- Make available new 450-470 MHz Industrial/Business Pool channels in gaps located between Industrial/Business Pool spectrum and spectrum designated for other services.
- Authorize trackside boosters on PLMR railroad channels to facilitate communication between the front and rear of trains where direct communication is unsatisfactory because of the length of the train or intervening terrain.
- Extend conditional licensing to PLMR stations that operate in the 700 MHz public safety narrowband and the 800 MHz band.
- Make underused Central Station Alarm channels available for other PLMR purposes provided that the Central Station Alarm frequency coordinator concurs.
On December 27, 2018, Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC) filed a petition with FCC stating the following:
“The Commission has adopted many of the approaches endorsed by the LMCC in these proceedings. However, there is a critical area in which the FCC rejected the LMCC’s recommendations and adopted rules, in the LMCC’s opinion, that must be reconsidered if the full potential of the spectrum at issue is to be captured. Specifically, the LMCC urges the FCC to reconsider the definition of the interference contour to be used in coordinating an 800 MHz Mid-Band (809-817/854-862 MHz) application and the derating factors to be applied in that contour analysis. The derating factors, which were developed for use with an F(50,50) curve, are not appropriate when applied to a more conservative F(50,10) curve. The result will provide more adjacent channel protection than needed while simultaneously reducing the spectrum utilization that otherwise could be derived from introducing interstitial channels into the 800 MHz band.”
It is important to note that licensing of 800 MHz interstitials channels is not possible until FCC has addressed this petition. Furthermore, while the rules became effective on December 27, 2018, formal administrative and FCC release details have yet to be issued. Specifically, it is not possible to determine at present the dates for which the FCC will issue a Public Notice (PN) announcing the release dates of the spectrum and the applicable filing windows for when frequency advisory committees can begin certifications and submissions to the FCC for processing.
by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 2, 2019 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Kevin O’Connor
Embracing FirstNet
It has been nearly eight years since the fire service secured bandwidth 14 (D-Block) and the creation of FirstNet through aggressive lobbying and advocacy. At times, it has been a tumultuous and seemingly never-ending journey in our quest for a dedicated, interoperable public safety communications network.
AT&T was the only major telecom company to bid. Many attempted to entice other companies to bid for the business in order to spark competition and innovation and drive down costs, but no other major carrier stepped forward, and AT&T was awarded the business. AT&T now has a 25-year contract to build out and manage the system for FirstNet, and they are doing so.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jan 30, 2019 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Edward Parkinson, Acting CEO, First Responder Network Authority
Last week, I joined the Western Fire Chiefs Association and public safety officials for a site visit to the burn area of the Camp Fire in northern California. This trip was an opportunity for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) to learn about the public safety response to the fires that devastated Paradise, California—a town of 27,000 residents in the foothills East of Chico—directly from those fire chiefs and other first responders who were on the ground during the wildfire.
Not only did seeing the Camp Fire site leave a lasting and tremendous impression on me, it also helped provide perspective on the enormity of the more than 153,000 acres of destruction and devastation to impact Butte County last November. Everything in view was affected by the fire.
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by AllThingsECC.com | Jan 27, 2019 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Charles Murph, First Responder Network Authority Senior Public Safety Advisor
With FirstNet available throughout the United States, emergency managers have greater access to real-time information than ever before. Charles Murph says that now is the time to think about how to manage the ever-larger volumes of data that will ensue.
The age of FirstNet stands to deliver situational awareness and data for Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs), whether for emergency managers in rural or metro areas in the US. When police needed to search a 300-acre wooded property in rural Alabama, they used a mix of traditional police work and cutting-edge technology to try to find evidence that could provide a long-sought break in a missing persons case.
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