Top 5 stories: Week of Nov. 3-7

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

1. “Public-safety groups disagree on ‘public-safety entity’ definition, including utility usage of FirstNet” – The question of what exactly Congress meant by “public-safety entity” when it created FirstNet two years ago has sparked a debate over whether utilities—or at least some of the essential functions that a utility company provides—should be folded into the general term. The answer is so unclear that even public-safety organizations can’t agree.

2. “Adams County equips first public-safety vehicle with Band 14 LTE” – A squad car with the Northglenn police department became the first vehicle operating on ADCOM911’s LTE network in Adams County, Colo. This marked a significant milestone for a public-safety broadband system that was launched back in June.

3. “Spot. Find. Fix. – Interference Techniques App Note” – This free white paper, presented by Anritsu, offers the lowdown on how to resolve your pesky interference issues. Check it out, if you haven’t already.

4. “Newscan: FirstNet moving quickly to analyze public-notice, RFI responses” – The window for public comment and responses for FirstNet’s public notice and RFI closed earlier this month. Not surprisingly, 80% of the responses were related to the definition of “public-safety entity,” says Acting General Manager T.J. Kennedy in a recent blog post. Kennedy says his team is working to move quickly through those responses, but it’s still early in the review process.

5. “Newscan: FirstNet comes to the ‘other’ Washington” – Bill Schrier, state point of contact for the state of Washington, presents a clear, detailed picture of where his state is in the consultation process. “If the design, planning, construction and implementation of the First Responder Network in the State of Washington is a 26 mile, 385 yard, marathon, the initial consultation we conducted on October 16th is the first 100 yards,” Schrier writes on his blog.