by AllThingsECC.com | Jan 20, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
ESChat President/CEO Josh Lober talks about his company’s partnership with Siyata Mobile, including today’s announcement that ESChat push-to-talk (PTT) service is available on the Siyata SD-7, which is a rugged IoT device certified for use on multiple carrier networks: Verizon, AT&T and FirstNet, with T-Mobile certification expected in coming months. By leveraging an Internet of Things (IoT) data plan, the SD-7 with ESChat delivers a quality PTT voice experience to users seeking a less-expensive option to typical LMR radios or smartphones that support PTT applications…
by ECC Editor | Jan 19, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
Federal legislation (Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’s Act) and their mutually inclusive regulations, including finding, routing, and reporting an E-911 emergency event, have phased into place over the last few years. The final requirements of the RAY BAUM’s Act, dispatchable location for non-fixed voice endpoints— just went live January 6, 2022. You’ve heard the trumpets sound off about these requirements for several years now. If your organization has already put an Enterprise NG/E-911 (911) solution in place, excellent. Even so, further mitigation may be required to comply with the latest RAY BAUM’s Act requirements. If you are currently seeking a 911 solution for your organization, you’ll need to fast-track your road map and implementation plan to get one in place ASAP… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Jan 15, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
Public-safety use of the 4.9 GHz spectrum band should be protected via a priority-and-preemption rules that allows sharing with critical-infrastructure entities, but exactly how this scheme is implemented remains a topic of considerable debate, according to dozens of comments to the FCC exploring the matter.
Comments about the best use of 4.9 GHz (4940 MHz to 4990 MHz) were due to the FCC in the latest proceeding about the airwaves, which traditionally have been dedicated to public safety but have been underutilized in the paAll Postsst, according to FCC commissioners. In the proceeding, the FCC is examining an alternative path for the band rather than implement the state-licensing scheme approved during the fall of 2020—rules that were halted last year…
by AllThingsECC.com | Jan 13, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
In last week’s Advocate, I wrote about how far we have come in meeting our goal of interoperability and outlined some of the major items we still need to address. This week we will take a deeper dive into where we are today and what remains to be done.
First, let’s look at where we are today and what needs to be done this year. Yes, these things can be completed by the end of the year if public safety, FirstNet (Built with AT&T), the FirstNet Authority, and the vendor community can come to a consensus. As I have said before, this is not rocket science. A large number of agencies already use one of the FirstNet-approved Push-To-Talk (PTT) applications over the FirstNet network, over their LMR (Land Mobile Radio) systems, and to and from other agencies. If the vendor community won’t step up and take part in providing nationwide PTT interoperability, today’s FirstNet-approved PTT vendors that interoperate with each other will be able to go it alone and deliver the solution.
by AllThingsECC.com | Jan 13, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
The Enforcement Bureau of the U.S. Federal Communications has entered into Consent Decrees with four major telecom carriers in connection with a system outage that prevented them from delivering 911 emergency calls.
The companies, CenturyLink, Intrado Safety Communications, Cellco Partnership (d/b/a Verizon Wireless), and AT&T Mobility, have agreed to pay a total of nearly $6.3 million in financial penalties for their roles in four separate 911 outages in September 2020. The outages ranged in length from one to three hours and affected users in multiple states across the U.S…
by ECC Editor | Jan 13, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
Most people know to dial 911 when emergency assistance is needed. While there is no denying the current 911 system has helped save countless lives since first introduced, it was primarily developed to work for landline phones.
With over 80% of 911 calls coming from mobile devices today, the need for an updated emergency response system is essential.
At NGA, we’ve heard our fair share of common misconceptions concerning public safety infrastructures and 911 myths stemming from outdated emergency response systems… READ MORE
