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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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
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
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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Introduction: Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) quality can have life-or-death implications. The quality of service provided by PSAPs is inconsistent due to the lack of mandatory standards of care at the national, state, and local levels. Public demands and duties placed on PSAPs have grown due to technological changes, civil cases alleging negligence, and the emergence of national recommended standards of care, yet governments at all levels have been slow to create governance structures to reinforce adherence to standards.
Methods: This article focuses on the question: How do PSAP leaders measure performance based on their definition of quality? The method used is directed content analysis, including analysis of interview and focus group data.
Results: As a result of this study, a new six-dimensional model for quality emerged. Participants defined PSAP quality as achieving balance across a continuum of nuanced variables because a single 911 call may have “99 tasks that need to be done.” Telecommunicators must: (a) Be fast AND accurate, (b) Use their judgement AND follow the protocol, and (c) Utilize all available technology AND prepare for that same technology to fail.
Conclusion: PSAP leaders should consider instructing new employees with the sixdimensional model to set expectations of performance while avoiding the perception of false dichotomies. This model should also be considered when implementing new quality improvement programs or procedures. By considering the totality and complexity of quality definitions, PSAP leaders can allow for reasonable variation and thus curb anxiety and frustration among their employees.
Introduction: Empirical literature examining the health and wellness of emergency responders has continued to grow over the past decade. Yet there is a relative absence of literature on 911 telecommunicators, who are often the “first, first responders” in an emergency. Examination of work-related factors that enhance risk for stress and adverse outcomes may improve current prevention and intervention efforts in this population.
Methods: Civilian 911 calltakers and dispatchers from the state of California (N = 833) participated in an online study to examine the impact of work-related factors (i.e., work-life balance, burnout, work conditions) on health-related outcomes (i.e., satisfaction with life, depression/anxiety, physical health). Further, the extent to which work-related factors had an indirect effect on health outcomes through perceived stress was tested using path analysis.
Results: Results indicated that burnout and work-life balance had significant direct effects on perceived stress and health-related outcomes. Further, perceived stress was a mechanism by which burnout and work-life balance had an impact on health-related outcomes.
Conclusions: Work conditions (i.e., mandatory overtime, weekend shifts) exhibited a direct effect only on satisfaction with life. Implications for study findings on the 911 industry are discussed.
Learn about current efforts to continue to protect the 4.9 GHz Band for public safety as well as recent filings, key decisions impacting these efforts, and how you can support PSSA’s initiative to protect the 4.9 GHz band for public safety.
