https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet


News

Fire chief encourages early FirstNet adoption, cites cost savings, potential mission-critical use in 2024

Fire chief encourages early FirstNet adoption, cites cost savings, potential mission-critical use in 2024

  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 11th January 2019

Public-safety agencies should subscribe to FirstNet soon, so they can test the system’s capabilities and better evaluate future possibilities—perhaps LMR replacement within five years—according to a California fire chief, who said adopting FirstNet allowed his department to save $360,0000.

“We’re all-in on FirstNet,” Stockton, Calif., Fire Chief Erik Newman said this week during a panel discussion at the CES show in Las Vegas. “If you’re wavering and you’re not on it, now is the time to get onto FirstNet and explore it.”

Newman said his department began beta testing FirstNet in 2017. While it can be a struggle to get employee “buy in” when implementing any new service, that has not been an issue since firefighters witnessed the FirstNet response to a fire in Napa and Sonoma County, he said.

“In my case, our folks were at a fire, and the cell towers burned up,” Newman said. “FirstNet came in, they set up trucks and got the system back up. They gave the command team devices, and they had a radio system up and running.

“Our guys were amazed. They came back and said, ‘Chief, we saw these phones where people can talk and direct connect, like the old Nextel function.’ It brought a smile to my face, because I was like, ‘Yeah, this is where we’re going.’ I didn’t have to sell it, because the folks operationally bought it.”

Newman said his department does not rely on FirstNet for mission-critical communications at the moment, but he believes that will change within the next five years.

“I’m only talking non-mission-critical [communications from FirstNet now],” he said. “I believe that, in 2024, we will get to the point where we I can give this to firefighters to go inside of buildings, but we’re not quite there yet. What I will tell you is that FirstNet is close.”

Officials for AT&T—FirstNet’s nationwide contractor—have announced that the carrier plans to give FirstNet subscribers a choice of multiple vendors providing services that are fully compliant with 3GPP’s mission-critical push-to-talk (MCPTT) standard during the second half of this year. AT&T uses Kodiak technology—owned by Motorola Solutions—to provide push-to-talk-over-cellular (PoC) services today. AT&T completed an RFP selection process for MCPTT vendors last year but has not announced any result to date.

Under the contract that the FirstNet Authority has with AT&T, the carrier giant is required to provide unicast MCPTT services to FirstNet subscribers by end of March 2021, a FirstNet Authority official told a California board last month. Mission-critical data, mission-critical video and MCPTT supported by multicast—designed to be a more efficient method to deliver one-to-many communications services—are contracted to be available by the end of March 2022.

Whether MCPTT services could supplant public safety’s traditional LMR mission-critical voice communications has been a topic of hot debate, and the technology is expected to be thoroughly scrutinized during the next several years.

Most industry experts believe MCPTT will meet or exceed public safety’s needs when users have access to a reliable broadband network, but there are significant doubts whether a direct-mode MCPTT solution can provide the communications range that public safety has today with LMR. Some have suggested that ever-expanding cellular networks and “bring-the-network-with-you” solutions—from deployable vehicles to portable networks that fit in backpacks or pelican cases—largely could address the issue, but many of those products are unproven today.

While it may be some time before FirstNet provides a mission-critical-voice alternative significant budgetary benefits of moving certain personnel to FirstNet already have been realized, Newman said.

“I gave our phones to people who didn’t do mission-critical things, like prevention,” Newman said. “I have 20-30 prevention folks. I took their $8,000 radio, and I gave them a phone with the ability to talk to dispatch, and I saved—I got a little pat on the back from my city manager—$360,000 that I could put back into my budget to buy some other things.

“When you at FirstNet and you look at your application, you’ve also got to look at it from a budget perspective. It’s going to save you a little money, and I look at it from that perspective. Now, I have folks that have data, text, e-mail and radio all in one device. I’ve taken an $8,000 radio, I’ve repurposed that, and now I’ve saved my department and the city $360,000.”

Newman said he enjoys the flexibility that FirstNet provides by enabling him to monitor communications on the city of Stockton’s LMR system, even when he is traveling outside of the LMR network’s coverage area.

In addition, leveraging FirstNet has let the city of Stockton to enable interoperability between its public-safety, non-public-safety agencies and other officials that may need to be informed about updates during a response effort, Newman said.

“In Stockton, before I got there, we could not talk to other county agencies,” Newman said. “But now, with FirstNet, we were able to bring everybody into one system, where I could get on the dispatch center and talk to them. That’s important.

“All the things that we’re talking about it is great, but if you don’t have the communications piece to talk to your neighbor, talk to county reps or talk to people that are going to come in and help your jurisdiction … the recovery process is not going to work—it’s going to be a struggle.”

 

 

Tags: homepage-featured-4 Broadband Push-to-X Coverage/Interference Critical Infrastructure Deployables Funding Interoperability Land Mobile Radio Long Term Evolution (LTE) News NTIA/FirstNet Policy Public Safety Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet Standards State & Local Government System Operation Tower & Site Video News

Most Recent


  • Lynk inks New Zealand deals seeking cash to grow satellite fleet
    In the first few days of June, Lynk Global made two announcements relating to New Zealand – the first being a successful trial of satellite-enabled texting with local telco 2Degrees and the other a partnership with another operator, Spark. While the company’s technology holds the promise to improve connectivity in areas with zero coverage, more […]
  • Barracuda warns all of its ESG appliances need urgent rip & replace
    Despite pushing out patches addressing vulnerabilities in its Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances in May, today Barracuda issued an urgent warning that all affected devices need to be taken offline and replaced immediately. The ESG remote command injection vulnerability, tracked under CVE-2023-2868, was already under active exploit since October 2022, Barracuda said in its initial May […]
  • NTT Docomo sees smart surfaces as key to 6G
    Could smart surface tech be one of the keys to 6G radio? The 6G network will have to do a lot of heavy lifting in very high frequency bands, requiring dense clusters of very low cost transmitters and receivers. NTT Docomo is advancing the idea of metasurface reflectors that dynamically redirect signals to mobile devices […]
  • Where local governments must allocate federal funds to support the future of cybersecurity
    This past February, the Department of Homeland Security’s State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program began to distribute funds to states with approved cybersecurity plans. For budget and resource strapped state, local and territorial governments (STLGs), these grants enable crucial cybersecurity investments to protect our nation from unprecedented cybersecurity risks and help bridge the gap between current funding […]

3 comments

  1. Avatar Vince 15th January 2019 @ 12:01 am
    Reply

    You do realize that Firstnet is basic AT&T right? I mean no improvements in infrastructure at all. How is that mission critical? How is that going to do anything for first responders? Your proposed cost savings will come at a cost. -Lives Lost.

    • Avatar Phil 18th January 2019 @ 3:20 pm
      Reply

      Apparently you have 0 information or concept of Firstnet…

  2. Avatar David 15th January 2019 @ 5:26 am
    Reply

    After reviewing the detailed FirstNet plan and see the commitments that AT&T has with the federal government is incredible! The technological advancements and coverage improvements are a game changer for public safety.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • New Orleans-area 911 center inks multiyear APEX deal with Carbyne to replace call-handling system
  • IoT connectivity spending climbs as COVID-19 cases decline
  • APCO, NENA, NASNA speakers cite ‘discussions’ to address NG911 funding issues
  • UK officials revamp ESN plans again, target Airwave-to-LTE transition for end of 2026

Commentary


Updated: How ‘sidelink’ peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations

  • 1
27th February 2023

NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation

24th February 2023

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.