by AllThingsECC.com | Apr 21, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
At IWCE 2022, FirstNet announced a new, significant upgrade to FirstNet (Built with AT&T) that prompted me to write about communications tools for first responders.
One of these tools is actually an upgrade to the network that many of us have been expecting for a long time. This network enhancement makes it possible to send Push-To-Talk (PTT) voice, data, and video to multiple devices simultaneously (multicasting). The most significant effect I see with multicasting videos is that this activity consumes much more bandwidth than PTT. Multicast, or eMBS, is important because it not only supports one-to-many broadcasts over the network, it adds yet another attribute which, until now, only Land Mobile Radio (LMR) could provide…
by AllThingsECC.com | Apr 21, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
President Joe Biden’s nominee for the Federal Communications Commission is drawing opposition from an unusual array of foes, including a police group, a North Dakota Democrat and former Republican aides working to stymie the president’s agenda.
Gigi Sohn, who would give Democrats a majority on the five-member commission and potentially revive net neutrality policies she favors, has yet to get a vote of the full Senate, almost six months after her selection by Biden…
by AllThingsECC.com | Apr 20, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
Emergency dispatch technology provider Prepared has raised $9.8 million in a seed funding round — fresh capital that amounts to a new bet on the growth of real-time and livestreamed 911 call data, and providing free tools to get there.
Prepared was founded in 2019 in New Haven, Conn., by three Yale University students and focuses on getting livestreamed and other real-time, “advanced data” from mobile 911 callers to dispatchers.
The tool fits into the larger trend of — and ongoing investor interest in — deploying technology that better serves the emergency response needs of mobile callers, and which allows more data to make its way to first responders in quick fashion…
by AllThingsECC.com | Apr 19, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
I’m from a little town in West Texas. As a Texan, I like getting straight to the point: I believe that emergency communications are a matter of national security. Because this message is so important, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has designated this April as the first-ever Emergency Communications Month.
At CISA, we are focused on two words: partnerships and culture. We cannot move forward in improving our nation’s security by ourselves; it requires partnership. We cannot move forward in overcoming challenges without fostering Collaboration, Innovation, Service, and Accountability—our CISA core values…
by ECC Editor | Apr 18, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
(TNS) – Their faces are never seen, but their voices are always heard. When you are panicking, they remain calm. They are the unseen heroes of first-responder agencies, the telecommunicators.
Public safety telecommunicators, sometimes known as emergency dispatchers, are being recognized this week during National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics defines public safety telecommunicators as those who operate communication systems at 9-1-1 and other emergency centers, gather information from callers regarding public safety matters, then relay that information to appropriate emergency response personnel to respond. They also may offer aid or instructions to callers at times… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Apr 18, 2022 | Articles, Comm Center News
“9-1-1. What is your emergency?”
“I’ve shot my entire family, and I’ll kill anyone that tries to stop me, even the cops and firefighters. I have explosives. Don’t come near my house.”
The assumption is that any dispatcher who is on the other end of this call immediately would activate SWAT, the bomb squad, fire and EMS. However, something is missing in the caller’s voice that you, the reader, can’t detect: urgency…
