by AllThingsECC.com | Dec 2, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Kim Coleman Madsen, Senior Public Safety Advisor, First Responder Network Authority
The Boulder FirstNet Lab is a state-of-the-art laboratory in which the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) tests public safety functionality and features unique to the FirstNet network. Experts in the lab in Boulder, Colorado, have the capabilities to carry out network validation and testing of features such as priority, preemption, quality of service, and public safety-specific applications. READ FULL ARTICLE
by ECC Editor | Nov 25, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
T-Mobile (TMUS) – Get T-Mobile US, Inc. Report agreed to pay $19.5 million to settle a Federal Communications Commission complaint over a 12-hour nationwide outage that resulted in thousands of failed 911 calls.
The company must also put a compliance plan in place that contains new commitments by T-Mobile to improve the 911 outage notices given to call centers, or public safety answering points, the FCC said in a consent decree.
This includes providing call centers with information about the outages and follow-up notices within two hours of the initial outage notifications… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Nov 24, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
Emergency call centers across the nation are “doing a good job” upgrading to modern technology compatible with next-generation 911, but the core infrastructure backing those systems needs a boost, according to a recent analysis from the public-safety consulting firm Mission Critical Partners.
The company, which offers its customers vulnerability assessments as part of its general service offerings, last week released a qualitative analysis after completing more than 100 such assessments over the past two years. Analysts said that while agencies are implementing strategic plans that keep their systems up-to-date — such as call-handling and computer-aided dispatch platforms — the emergency services IP networks, commonly known as ESInets, and next-generation core services aren’t being upgraded as quickly…
by AllThingsECC.com | Nov 21, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
Winter Storm Uri, Western wildfires, an active Atlantic hurricane season and hundreds of tornadoes created extreme working challenges for utility fieldworkers that underscored the need for highly reliable communications between field crews and operations centers.
Many utilities, recognizing their field crews face increased risks from extreme weather and natural disasters, have outfitted their field crews with exceptionally rugged computing solutions and reliable communication networks that allow real-time communication between field crews and operations centers. For those in the field, it’s literally a matter of life and death…
by AllThingsECC.com | Nov 19, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Adam Stone November 17, 2021
In an increasingly digital era, networks are key to enabling the federal mission. In this regard, government agencies can turn to the private sector to ensure they have the most relevant, modern capabilities to support not just telecommunications, but also the ready flow of data that helps to drive mission outcomes.
“We thrive as a nation when public and private enterprises are working together,” said Jason Porter, president of AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet.
READ FULL ARTICLE
by AllThingsECC.com | Nov 18, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
This week’s Advocate is a throwback to 2017 when I wrote about the difference between network capacity requirements of commercial broadband networks and capacity requirements of public-safety broadband networks. This is a good time for this particular throwback since we are currently working with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to determine the highest and best use for 4.9 -GHz spectrum. When establishing capacity needs of a broadband network, it is important to understand that commercial network capacity assumptions do not hold up when it comes to public safety. As you will discover below, this is because most public-safety incidents happen within small geographic areas. Therefore, the capacity needed during these incidents has to be measured based on what is available within a single cell sector or cell site…
