LightSquared announces next-generation P2T roadmap
Satellite communications provider LightSquared today announced its intention to support its first-responder push-to-talk and interoperability services for at least another three years while working with the mission-critical sector on new devices that take advantage of the company’s next-generation satellite services.
“LightSquared is transitioning to next-generation services, and wants people to know that includes push-to-talk capabilities,” LightSquared spokesman Chris Stern said in an interview. “They just want to assure folks that, everything they have now, they’ll have in the future.”
LightSquared will replace its existing public-safety devices at no cost to users and will support existing push-to-talk devices through 2014 , according to a company press release. It also will continue supporting the Satellite Mutual Aid Radio Talk (SMART) program that the company created several years ago to aid interoperable communications between various agencies.
“In an emergency, the last thing public safety workers should have to worry about is their ability to communicate with each other,” LightSquared Chairman and CEO Sanjiv Ahuja said in a prepared statement. “That’s why LightSquared is committed to the SMART program, ensuring that the men and women on the front lines have communication devices that connect them to each other or to a federal agency thousands of miles away,”
In addition, LightSquared pledged to work with public safety to design next-generation devices that “meet the rugged standards demanded by public safety workers who work in a wide range of hostile conditions and environments,” according to the company’s press release.
