It is no secret that the long shifts required of public safety telecommunicators can cause challenges for relationships, activities and self-care outside of work. In my recent survey1 of California telecommunicators, participants shared that the heart of the issue was that frequently their scheduled time off was not honored, which worsened multiple areas of work-life balance. For some of the telecommunicators, being contacted at home regarding work issues was the norm at their agency. Others said having time off revoked was an ongoing occurrence. In the words of one participant, “We work a lot of hours already, and to miss holidays that you are scheduled off for is frustrating…
We recently celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the signing of the law that created FirstNet. I think this might be a good time to look back at FirstNet (Built with AT&T) and see what AT&T has accomplished in only a little more than the five years since it was awarded the build, operate, and maintain contract from the FirstNet Authority (FNA).
During the first five years of the 25-year contract (the “build” portion), there was at least one task for AT&T to complete every six months. Some tasks had to do with Band 14 build-out and some with device and application certifications. Then there was 3GPP-compliant Push-To-Talk (3GPP PTT), and finally, AT&T had to meet or exceed the number of FirstNet users on the network that is specified in the contract. AT&T received a partial payment from the FirstNet Authority…
A new, three-digit number for mental health emergencies is set to roll out nationally in about nine weeks but some states still aren’t ready to handle what experts predict could be a crush of calls.
The federally-mandated 988 system will strengthen and expand the existing 10-digit National Suicide Prevention hotline. It’s meant to make it easier for people in crisis to get the help they need without routing their calls through 911 public safety dispatchers…
BOULDER, Colo. — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today the launch of the Public Safety Immersive Test Center in Boulder, Colorado, to spur the development and deployment of technologies critical to effective public safety response.
Through this partnership, NIST’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division and the FirstNet Authority plan to enable research and development, education, and training, by offering the facility at no cost to public safety agencies and organizations that support public safety response efforts, including private sector and academic institutions…
While participating in the 2022 Enterprise Connect annual conference panel on Managing E911 for Compliance and Safety, Martha Buyer, an attorney who was involved with the creation of Kari’s Law, stated, “Enterprises that operate multi-line telephone systems, and have either installed new systems or completed a major upgrade since February of 2018, don’t really have an excuse for non-compliance that would likely hold up in court. There are other areas of state and federal laws that if not specifically requiring compliance, suggest that non-compliance is a bad place to be. Specifically, OSHA regulations require organizations provide a safe workplace. It would not be a tough argument to make in court that anything that could be construed as denial to access of 911 absolutely creates an unsafe workplace… READ MORE
Device Location Now Used to Route 9-1-1 Calls and Dispatch First Responders to the Right Location Faster, Accomplishing Long-Standing FCC Policy Goal
DALLAS, May 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — What’s the news? AT&T* is the first carrier to launch location-based routing to automatically transmit wireless 9-1-1 calls to the appropriate 9-1-1 call centers on a nationwide basis. Through this new “Locate Before Route” feature from Intrado, AT&T can quickly and more accurately identify where a wireless 9-1-1 call is coming from using device GPS and hybrid information to route the call to the correct 9-1-1 call center, also known as public safety answering point or PSAP…
Learn about current efforts to continue to protect the 4.9 GHz Band for public safety as well as recent filings, key decisions impacting these efforts, and how you can support PSSA’s initiative to protect the 4.9 GHz band for public safety.
