by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 27, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
State and local entities that use revenues from 911 fees for purposes that do not directly support 911 will be identified and risk losing access to federal 911 funding, according to the FCC’s report and order addressing the issue of 911 fee diversion that was required by Congress.
Released yesterday, the order fulfills an FCC obligation to establish rules that are designed to discourage a longtime issue within some states of assessing and collecting 911 fees from subscribers’ phone bills and then not using the money for 911—a practice known as fee diversion, or “raiding,” within the public-safety community. Congress mandated that the FCC approve the rules and create a new 911 Strike Force within six months of the passage of the Don’t Break Up the T-Band Act in appropriations legislation that was signed into law in late December 2020…
by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 26, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
So I’m pretty sure we have akk “butt dialed” someone, somewhere, sometime. Maybe even many times. Usually no harm, no foul, right?
Now this brings to light a recent Facebook post from the Maine Department of Public Safety Communications department that has many people upset.
The issue is with 9-1-1 hang up calls and the domino effect of those calls. It appears this is mostly an Apple iPhone issue as Apple has recently added a feature that makes it easy to make an emergency call by simply holding two buttons together at the same time…
by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 25, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
AT&T (NYSE: T) has announced the expansion of the FirstNet broadband communications platform’s deployable network assets to support public safety personnel during emergency response efforts.
The company said Thursday the expansion provides law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical service personnel and other first responders access to over 100 FirstNet portable cell sites to deliver communications support during the 2021 hurricane and wildfire seasons.
“We’ve expanded the FirstNet fleet to provide even more portable cell sites, as well as to introduce new types of assets to help public safety stay mission ready,” said Jason Porter, president of public sector and FirstNet at AT&T….
by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 24, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
This week’s Advocate is made up of a series of shorter pieces covering items I think the public-safety community should to be aware of, starting with how upcoming wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, floods in the east, and severe drought in the west will potentially increase the number of incidents and affect first-responders’ ability to handle them efficiently.
Then we will look at the new National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard for portable radios and speaker/microphones for withstanding the extreme conditions often faced by firefighters. Having bet on NFPA-certification, L3Harris appears to be the first vendor to build a fully-functional portable with multiband Land Mobile Radio (LMR) and FirstNet capabilities that should comply with the NFPA standard…
by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 24, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
As we planned for the FirstNet network, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) worked together with the public safety community to understand their critical communications needs. To make use of mobile broadband for daily operations and emergencies, first responders told us they needed the network to be available when and where they needed it most.
The FirstNet Authority incorporated this important feedback on coverage into our Request for Proposals for the network. We ensured that terrestrial cell sites would be deployed where public safety needed them most according to each State’s plan. We also enabled innovative solutions for coverage by incorporating public safety deployables or portable cell sites into the FirstNet offering. READ FULL ARTICLE
by AllThingsECC.com | Jun 24, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
The European Union’s BroadWay project, which paves a technological path for interoperable, cross-border public safety broadband, has taken another step toward reality, with the project recently demonstrating the results of its prototyping phase for buyers in EU member countries.
According to a Project BroadWay release, it held a prototype demonstration on June 7 with suppliers Airbus, Leonardo and Frequentis.
Project BroadWay already has 11 EU member states involved as procurers, led by ASTRID, which provides emergency and security communication services in Belgium. The prototype demo gathered interest from an additional seven member states and three associated countries, Project BroadWay said…
