by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 18, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News, Jobs
For several years, my bonus daughter Katie was a 911 dispatcher based here in Tri-cities. She loved it and excelled at it. But there were certainly very stressful moments. She’s focusing on being a mom right now, but I remember her saying that the benefits are excellent and the pay is good, but the experience is priceless. She hasn’t talked about too many of the things that happened (I think they’re not supposed to), only some generalities about crazy calls and such. She was even named Dispatcher Of the Year! …
by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 18, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
Last week’s Advocate discussing the difference between FirstNet and commercial networks that concluded that FirstNet needs to continue to stand alone and not become part of a network of networks was one of the most viewed and commented on Advocates I have written in a while. Most of the comments agreed that FirstNet is different from a typical commercial broadband network from The FirstNet Authority down to the public-safety professionals whose network it is…
by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 17, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
By Richard Mirgon, Public Safety Consultant
This is a message for Verizon and Andres Irlando, a Verizon senior vice president and president of the carrier’s Public Sector and Verizon Connect unit. You are going down a path that is well traveled and not new. You can go back decades and see all the work done by thousands to resolve public safety interoperability and that path is lined with many failures.
Now since I am somewhat of an expert on this topic let me help you out with some observations and good history. You can look at all the standards work the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) has done, along with the work the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) has done. There are standards that cover everything from CAD to CAD interfaces, NextGen Networks to Land Mobile Radio (LMR). The largest having been P25. They have all had varying levels of success but none of those have solved the problem…
by ECC Editor | Feb 17, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
Many business enterprises currently licensed to operate land-mobile-radio (LMR) networks on T-Band spectrum (470-512 MHz) are taking the first step this week toward making the first significant updates to their systems in almost nine years, when the FCC froze the band in anticipation of an auction that recently was scrapped… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 11, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
by Karl Wilmes, Police Chief (Ret)
Public safety spectrum serves the mission critical communications needs of first responders charged with the protection of life and property, such as police, fire fighters and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers. The challenges facing public safety, specifically law enforcement in the 21st century are numerous. Therefore, the ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for state-based licensing for public safety operations in the 4.9 GHz band is extremely disappointing and has the potential to be life threatening…
by AllThingsECC.com | Feb 11, 2021 | Articles, Comm Center News
There is a lot going on during these early days of 2021. Broadband companies that did not bid on the FirstNet Request for Proposal are seeing how successful FirstNet is and want to change the rules late in the game; initial MegaRange™ drive tests are underway and a webinar is in the making; z-axis location technology is available; and now public-safety agencies are able to own or lease their own mini-emergency Band-14 cell sites.
Network Interoperability—Yet Again?
It seems every time FirstNet (Built with AT&T) releases updates or announces advances, other networks once again bring up broadband interoperability. Recently, FirstNet announced more network growth, new agencies, new subscribers, more Band-14 cell sites, and the addition of z-axis location that enables public-safety personnel to be located to within feet on the exact floor of a building…
