Elmore County Idaho joins new first responder communication network
At just over 3,000 square miles, Elmore County is one of the largest in Idaho, but also one of the most remote, meaning radio and wireless communication can sometimes be a struggle.
Brazos County, Texas, Sheriff Embraces 21st Century Public Safety Tech
The local sheriff’s department shares its experience with the FirstNet dedicated public safety broadband network.
by Melissa Delaney
Brazos County, Texas got its first glimpse into the future in 2010. Police Sgt. Josh Hearen attended a demonstration for the nation’s first public safety broadband network in neighboring Harris County, a First Responders Network Authority (FirstNet) Early Builder.
“Josh planted the seed here that maybe we could work off that core antenna and test some of the devices,” recalls Brazos County Sheriff Chris Kirk. Harris County loaned them six devices, and the test proved successful. Within a few years, Brazos County was operating on band class 14 — the public safety spectrum — and continued until November 2017, when Texas opted into FirstNet. “We started the project the week of Thanksgiving,” says Kirk, and they haven’t looked back.
Motorola Solutions provides insight into company’s progress on MCPTT, MCData, MCVideo
Motorola Solutions’ broadband push-to-talk offering—driven by Kodiak technology acquired in 2017—meets most of the 3GPP standard for mission-critical push to talk (MCPTT), but the lack of available proximity services (ProSe) chipsets remains the biggest hurdle to being fully MCPTT-compliant, according to company official.
SOURCE: Urgent Communications
DATE: April 11, 2019
AT&T recently announced the availability its upgraded Enhanced Push to Talk (EPTT) offering, which was recently showcased during the Winter Institute in College Station, Texas. Powering that service is Kodiak Release 9.0, which includes MCPTT features like emergency calling, remote monitoring and ambient discreet listening, according to Michael Doerk, senior manager for product marketing at Motorola Solutions.
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Virginia Roadmap Engagement Addresses Critical Voice, Data Needs
By Lori Stone, Senior Public Safety Advisor (DC, DE, MD, VA, WV)
As part of our Roadmap Engagements, the First Responder Network Authority’s (FirstNet Authority) Public Safety Advocacy (PSA) team was pleased to recently hold a Mission Critical Services Workshop in Fairfax County, VA.
Public safety officials from across the DC Metro area joined us for an event to learn more about the current and future efforts surrounding the recently announced FirstNet Authority Roadmap. The goal of the planned Roadmap is to help advance and evolve the FirstNet network. We are highly focused on ensuring the Roadmap captures public safety’s most critical communications needs.
HAAS Alert Partners with Active911 on Collision Prevention
HAAS Alert Partners with Active911 on Collision Prevention
Through the partnership, Active911 mobile app users can leverage the HAAS Alert Safety Cloud to automatically send digital alerts to nearby drivers and other emergency vehicles when responding to an emergency.
According to a University of Minnesota study, the risk of collision between a civilian vehicle and emergency vehicle can be reduced by up to 90% when nearby drivers receive an advance warning.
“Every day in the United States, there are almost 200 roadway collisions involving a first responder, with many of them having a connected device in their vehicle running the Active911 mobile app,” said Cory Hohs, co-founder and CEO of HAAS Alert.
By adding their digital alerting capabilities to our mobile platform, first responders using the Active911 system will have an added layer of protection while responding to emergencies.
For more on the HAAS Alert app, view the “FirstNet App Catalog: Apps for First Responder Teamwork” webinar on demand here.
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FCC Commissioner Reprimands 3 States for Continually Diverting 9-1-1 Fees
FCC Commissioner Reprimands 3 States for Continually Diverting 9-1-1 Fees
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo received the letter, which called the three states “habitual diverters of 9-1-1 fees,” and said they “appear to have little interest in correcting this harmful behavior.”
O’Rielly said the three states diverted the most money, in both total funding diverted and on a percentage basis, according to the FCC’s most recent report. Specifically, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island were responsible for diversions of $170.9 million, $94.2 million and $11.4 million, equating to 90.35%, 77.26% and 67.7%, respectively, of monies received.
In the case of Rhode Island and New Jersey, the collected funds diverted were used for purposes completely unrelated or not demonstrated to be related to emergency communications. In New York, the commission found that the vast majority of funding did not go to 9-1-1-related purposes and a mere $10 million of the $75 million in the state’s various “public safety grants” were 9-1-1 related.
The letter said diverting 9-1-1 fees undermines the willingness of consumers to support 9-1-1, shortchanges the budgets of emergency centers and prevents systems from being upgraded, and makes the three states ineligible for new federal funding to modernize emergency centers. “This entire situation, however, is entirely fixable,” O’Rielly said. “If you are ready to exert the necessary leadership, I stand ready to work with you to eliminate the 9-1-1 fee diversion practices of your respective states.” The full letter is here.
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