Top 5 stories: Week of Sept. 29-Oct. 3

Here’s a look at the most popular stories on IWCE’s Urgent Communications from the last week:

1) “Missing FirstNet question may shed light on organization’s early hiring practices” – Congress created FirstNet as an “independent authority” within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, but what that actually means continues to be a nagging question. Discussion surrounding this flared up again recently with the publication of an investigative story by McClatchyDC that analyzed FirstNet’s early contracting practices. IWCE’s Urgent Communications Editor Donny Jackson talks about the evolution of FirstNet since those early days.

2) “Denver-area public safety realizes benefits of Adams County Band 14 LTE during local concert” – Hoards of concertgoers and their intense social-media habits couldn’t hamper public-safety officials’ ability to access data during a recent three-day Phish concert in Commerce City, Colo. While attendees loaded up the commercial networks with selfies and video of the popular jam band, first responders were able to access databases for warrants or criminal records through Adams County’s leased Band 14 spectrum from FirstNet and deployable LTE communications.

3) “Airbus DS Communications – formerly Cassidian Communications – put on the selling block” – This story continues into its second week as one of our most popular stories on the site.

4) “Newscan: Marty Cooper and Jessica Rosenworcel: Here’s how to expand wireless spectrum” – Rosenworcel and Cooper’s contributed piece to the San Jose Mercury News is part ode to wireless and part call to action. This excerpt sums it up nicely: “We believe it is time for Washington to issue a challenge. It is time for a contest to spur innovation to improve spectrum efficiency. Think of it as Race to the Top, Spectrum Edition.” This story was the headliner in Tuesday’s UC Today Newscan.

5) “New Cisco Systems IP surveillance cameras equipped for heavy-duty analytics” – Cisco recently upped the ante on its surveillance products by putting a digital signal processing (DSP) chip inside the cameras, enabling them to run complex video analytics. The cameras, where were recently announced, are also designed to only alert users when an event has occurred and to toss out the junk footage in between events after two or three days have passed.