by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Comm Center News
When in need of immediate assistance for themselves or someone else, people call 911, and in that moment, they are the most important person in the crisis. The caller possesses the information necessary for an appropriate emergency response. However, the time it takes for help to arrive can seem like an eternity, and callers are frequently frustrated by the dispatcher’s questioning. It is common for a telecommunicator to hear, “Why are you asking this? Just send someone!”
by ECC Editor | Aug 27, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
Axon yesterday launched Respond, a cloud-based, real-time operations platform that marks the company’s entry into the computer-aided-dispatch (CAD) arena and is designed to help agencies leverage information from a various connected devices to enhance response efforts, according to a company official.
“We stepped back and said, ‘We want to do this right.’ We don’t want to get into this space just to replicate what has existed before,” Josh Pepper, Axon’s vice president of product management, said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications… READ MORE
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Comm Center News
If someone dials 911 at Fort McCoy, someone is always there to answer, said Supervisory Public Safety Dispatcher Richard Kingsbury with the Directorate of Emergency Services (DES) Central 911 Communications/Security Center.
The center, also referred to as DES Dispatch Center at the installation, has maintained its coverage and support 24 hours a day, seven days a week since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March, Kingsbury said…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Comm Center News
An overnight camping trip nearly turned to tragedy for a group of friends visiting Smith Mountain Lake last month. When one of the friends stopped breathing, the guidance of a 911 operator helped to keep him alive and bring him to safety.
The friends were staying on a small island on the lake near channel marker R4 called Middle Island. After camping overnight and spending some time on the island, Josh George of Hurt, informed his friends that he was going to take a nap. Some time later he became unresponsive…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Comm Center News
FirstNet-AT&T has helped connect ambulances providing mutual aid for areas hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, provided connectivity for coronavirus testing facilities and is being creatively integrated into telehealth solutions, according to Ed Parkinson, CEO of the FirstNet Authority.
Parkinson, speaking at this week’s IWCE Virtual event, said that since March, FirstNet-AT&T has fielded 75 requests for deployables to boost connectivity at locations around the country. Those included both pandemic-related response and other incidents as well…
by AllThingsECC.com | Aug 27, 2020 | Articles, Comm Center News
A new advocacy group is calling for additional spectrum to be assigned to the FirstNet Authority for exclusive use public safety, saying that the spectrum could eventually help support public safety use of 5G.
In a discussion as part of this week’s IWCE Virtual event, Sue Swenson — a former board member and board chair of the FirstNet Authority, and now founder of the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) — said that 50 megahertz of spectrum at 4.9 GHz, which is already designated for public safety use, should be assigned to the FirstNet Authority to develop a spectrum plan and reserve a portion of the band for public safety 5G…
