For the past six and a half years, James, a military veteran in his thirties, has spent his days in a 911 call center on the East Coast, counseling strangers during some of the worst moments of their lives.  “I like helping people and I’m good at what I do,” he told...

By Ted Hebron, senior product manager at Laird Connectivity.
Property owners desire optimal wireless connectivity in their buildings to better serve their tenants. However, these systems can play a far more urgent role in emergency situations by supporting communications with first responders.
The coronavirus crisis is forcing building owners to think deeply about the safety of occupants. The nationwide rollout of the FirstNet network, which is happening at a rapid pace, will give first responders far better connectivity via a dedicated wireless network. However, the success of this network depends on whether buildings provide adequate in-building signal support for firefighters, police and EMTs. READ MORE

Solid network reliability, data priority for first responder traffic and local 24/7 support are crucial. When it comes to public safety communications, a reliable network is key. First responders need operational and reliable connectivity in order to keep citizens and...

By Richard Mirgon, Public Safety Consultant
There was recently published an article about Verizon announcing their new public safety app store. Public safety should understand that this app store is marginal and nothing more than a list and access to a miscellaneous collection of public safety related applications. This site is dangerous to public safety and users should read the User Agreement which says Verizon is not responsible for anything. Here is a sample from that User Agreement:
“Vendor Content may contain errors, bugs, design flaws or other problems that may not be corrected by Verizon in providing Vendor Content; 2.1.2 Verizon may not have tested Vendor Content (including security information) and Customer’s use of any Vendor Content is at Customer’s sole risk. Vendor Content may result in unexpected results, loss of data, project delays or other unpredictable damage or loss to Customer;
“Customer further agrees that VENDOR CONTENT IS PROVIDED SOLELY BY A VENDOR CONTENT PROVIDER, AND VERIZON IS NOT A PARTY TO ANY AGREEMENT BETWEEN CUSTOMER AND A VENDOR CONTENT PROVIDER. 2.2 LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. CUSTOMER AGREES THAT IN NO EVENT WILL VERIZON BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOST REVENUE, LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION AND THE LIKE OR FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES HOWEVER CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF THE INSTALLATION, USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE VENDOR CONTENT OFFERED THROUGH THE VERIZON PUBLIC SAFETY APPLICATIONS PORTAL.”
So what it says is if you use any apps or the portal and someone dies, gets hurt or something goes wrong, don’t blame them. Now in all fairness there are good apps from excellent companies but as a company that claims to support public safety this is dangerous. Since there is no certification as FirstNet does, this store will include apps that drain your battery, have security holes, bloated code and may impact valid apps you are using. What is going to protect the user of this app store from third party developers adding apps that are built by foreign governments or drug cartels? This could include anything from apps that track first responders to apps that spy on other data on your public safety device. You wouldn’t know because Verizon doesn’t certify the apps.
One of the significant benefits to FirstNet is their process for certifying apps.  They are tested for security holes, hidden tracking, excessive battery drain or any other abnormality. For an app to be listed on FirstNet you must pass a series of tests as mentioned and more. It may be rigorous but it is designed to protect you the first responder.
This Verizon app store is nothing more than a lame effort to lead public safety to believe it is the same as FirstNet. Let’s call it for it is, more of Verizon’s ME-TOO effort. Public safety should not allow itself to get sucked into these ME-TOO programs by other carriers that are meaningless at best and in some cases dangerous.
Richard Mirgon is a Public Safety consultant focused on FirstNet. He is a Past President of APCO International and has over 35 years of public safety and first responder experience. For more information about the author please go to http://www.next-paradigm.com/about/
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of this company or any company with whom the author may be associated.

I recently received an email from someone in the industry I know and have worked with on several occasions. He asked if I had ever put together a comparison of Land Mobile Radio (LMR) services with FirstNet/LTE services and networks. Looking back in my archives, I found I have touched on their similarities and differences over the past four or five years but I have never presented a detailed, side-by-side listing of their attributes. For this week’s Advocate I have organized these into one document but I won’t call it a “comparison” since I believe both LMR and LTE networks are and will be required in the public-safety environment for a long time to come. 
This compilation of attributes is not about choosing LMR over FirstNet or FirstNet over LMR. It represents an effort to highlight their advantages and illustrate how public safety benefits when they are used together. I view LMR as the lifeline for public safety and FirstNet as the communications tool that provides those in the field with information about incidents they are responding to, what to expect, what resources are available, and much more in the way of data, videos, and location-based services. An agency that chooses both LMR and FirstNet is one that recognizes that the sum of the two networks is not two, it is more like ten, and if the LMR and FirstNet networks are interconnected at least for Push-To-Talk (PTT), the combined value is even greater. Finally, while I don’t agree with use of the term “mission-critical,” having both networks available to public safety does add redundancy for voice and the combination provides the best public-safety-grade communications available today.
LMR and FirstNet Attributes
NETWORK
PUBLIC SAFETY LAND MOBILE RADIO
FIRSTNET (BUILT WITH AT&T)
 
 
 
Coverage
Local, Regional, Statewide
U.S. Nationwide plus Territories
Type of Information
Push-to-Talk Voice: Analog, P25 Conventional, P25 Trunked (some data)
Dial-Up Voice, Push-to-Talk, Text, Photos, Data, Video
Devices
Mobile, Handheld LMR Devices
Smartphones, Tablets, Mobile Routers
Spectrum 
Low-band, VHF, UHF, T-Band, 700-800
LTE Band 14, All LTE/5G AT&T Spectrum
System Types
Simplex, Repeater, Simulcast, Trunking
LTE Broadband 
PTT Systems
Common but by Technology
At Present, 7 Vendors (1 MCPTT)
Interoperability
Depends on Spectrum/Technology
Basic Network Yes, PTT and Apps Not Yet (see Notes)
Device Tx Power
Mobile: 50-100 Watts, Handheld 2-5 Watts, External Antennas
Basic: 250 Mw (1/4-Watt) Built-In Antennas, Band 14 Only 1.25 Watts
Rx-Tx Matching
Good, may require Satellite Receivers 
Network Matched Very Well
In-Building Coverage
Good to first wall, many buildings have Distributed Antenna Systems 
Good to first wall, Inbuilding Build-Out in Progress
Handheld Battery Life
Normally One 8-Hour Shift+, Removable and Replaceable Batteries. Rapid Charging Available
Very Good, Well More than a Shift, Removable Batteries from only a Few Vendors. Fast Charge Available
Voice Security(see notes)
Poor on Analog, Better on P25 Conventional, Better on P25 Trunked
FirstNet Fully Encrypted, Secondary Encryption Available as Needed
Site Hardening
Most Sites Hardened
Sites Hardened as Deployed
Power Back-Up
Batteries and Generators Are Common
Prime Sites, Yes, Others as Needed
Backhaul 
Radio, T-1 Copper, Microwave, Fiber
Fiber/Microwave, Satellite in Rural Areas
Network Resilience
Several Layers of Degradation Ending with Simplex
Vulnerable to Site Failure but Designed for Site Overlap, No Simplex 
Failure Recovery
Most Do Not Have Back-Up Systems to Replace Failed Sites
FirstNet Deploys Cells on Wheels, In Air, and Other Devices to Restore Service
Investment Required
Buy and Own System and Devices, Pay for Repairs
FirstNet: System Provided; Device Pricing Varies with Device Type
Network Core
Analog FM – None
Multiple-Redundant Cores
 
P25 Conventional – None
 
 
P25 Trunked – One Central Core OR
 
 
Cores Located at Each Site
 
 Range Extension
  Vehicular Repeaters (AKA Pac-Rat)   
 Vehicle router using Wi-Fi to devices, High Power on Band 14 only
Notes: 
A number of items do not lend themselves to charts very well, and I did not delve into detailed technology specifications for the various networks as this column is intended to highlight operational similarities and differences. 
There have been recent reports of public-safety LMR disruptions allegedly by protesters. Chicago reported its LMR system was available on the Internet (receive-only) as are most non-encrypted LMR systems, but CBS Chicago reported that radio channels were also being disrupted by music on the channels. This, of course, is a violation of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules but it is very difficult to identify those responsible in time to take action. Some Chicago PD personnel were told to use PTT over cellular, which, I believe, means FirstNet since Chicago PD is a FirstNet subscriber. 
It is interesting that while working on this Advocate I received a comment to last week’s off-network column regarding my remarks about security: “Great column as always! I suggest that you tread lightly when you imply FirstNet has the ability to provide ‘secure’ communications. There is the RAN side. Private, yes. However, the subscriber unit uses channelized FDMA to talk-in and the emission can be ‘noticed’ within a local radius. There are techniques to be truly secure, just not in LTE or P25.” This is good advice and I strongly believe in additional security measures for both voice and data on all public-safety networks. 
My last note is a reiteration of something I have been saying all along. The FirstNet network meets the first and most important purpose of the law Congress passed in 2012. It is a Nationwide Broadband Public-Safety Network (NPSBN). Any public-safety agency or personnel with a FirstNet subscription has access to the network regardless of where they happen to be in the United States. What is left to accomplish has more to do with the operational side of nationwide interoperability than it does with the network which is, for the most part, fully operational and far ahead of schedule. 
I am confident the remaining issues will be addressed going forward. These issues include the following: Today there are seven different PTT vendors’ applications available to FirstNet users. The newest is the FirstNet PTT system that is based on and meets the 3GPP Mission-Critical Push-To-Talk (MCPTT) standard. Though three are fully interoperable with each other, there will still be instances during multi-agency incidents when everyone responding may not be able to use PTT over FirstNet because of a lack of full interoperability. This is also true today for many data and video applications used by individual departments and it will be difficult establish a common set of standards for their interoperability. While this is the ultimate goal, it cannot be to the detriment of an agency’s own preferences. Some very intelligent people are addressing this issue and I suspect we will be seeing a relentless movement toward better interoperability. 
The reported interference on Chicago PD’s LMR network and moving users to cellular PTT should be of interest to other departments, especially those still using analog FM or unencrypted digital communications technologies. This strengthens the case for FirstNet—not to replace LMR systems but to augment them. In times of protests or other major events, there is always a chance someone outside public safety will try to interfere with communications. Being able to move PTT activities from LMR PTT to FirstNet during such times makes sense and it provides broader access to agencies reporting to the incident. 
The chart above is not a complete assessment of the two sets of technologies and, as stated, it is not designed to be an either/or chart. Rather, it is designed to show the strengths of each network and reinforce the wisdom of using both LMR and FirstNet. FirstNet provides a level of interoperability among agencies including most federal agencies that are called on to assist in an incident. Access to both networks and, ideally, being able to cross-connect them for PTT services when and as needed, ups communications redundancy and comes closer to a public-safety-grade communications system. 
FirstNet Authority Board of Directors Meeting
The next FirstNet Authority Board of Directors meeting will be held June 17, 2020, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. EDT. This meeting will be conducted via teleconference and open to the public, and it will include committee reports as well as board items and actions. Following FirstNet Authority meetings is a good way to stay current with The Authority, which is responsible for FirstNet, the FirstNet contract with AT&T, and what the future holds for FirstNet. Details for the call-in can be found by following this link.
Winding Down
It seems we have been hit with so many issues right now that involve the public-safety community I have to wonder if any of you are getting any sleep or down time. We are dealing with a nationwide pandemic and nationwide protests that now seem to be peaceful and hopefully will stay that way. A tropical storm is dumping rain, there is lots of rain in the southern part of the U.S., tornadoes continue to pop up, the wildland fire season has started ahead of last year, and the National Weather Service is telling us this could be a bad hurricane season. 
It is encouraging that LMR and FirstNet systems are up and operating, there are back-up capabilities in place that can be tapped when needed, and there are and will continue to be personnel on the ground to help manage the needs of the public-safety community during all this. We will soon learn about new devices that will include both LMR and FirstNet capabilities and some that will feature new and exciting uses of Bluetooth for better coordination of LMR and FirstNet devices. The IWCE conference that was rescheduled for August in Las Vegas has been changed to a virtual conference but I hope many of the vendors will still take part and show us their new devices. So far, the APCO show is still scheduled to be a traditional conference in Orlando. 
The one thing we know for certain is that nothing is certain. This means we need to continue to be prepared for whatever is thrown our way and get past any obstacles. One of the most important tools we have for making our way back to some semblance of normal is an even more solid set of communications systems. However, we need Congress to move toward funding Next-Generation 9-1-1 (NG911), which I believe is the missing link in providing public safety with information they need when responding. NG911 is imperative to FirstNet and LMR will remain part of the equation for a very long time. The ultimate goal is to better prepare those running into harm’s way with the information and tools they need. 
Until next week…
Andrew M. Seybold©2020, Andrew Seybold, Inc.