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Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet


News

U.S. Army contracts with FirstNet to support public-safety personnel at 72 installations

U.S. Army contracts with FirstNet to support public-safety personnel at 72 installations

  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 14th October 2020

AT&T this week announced that the U.S. Army has selected FirstNet—the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) being built by AT&T—to provide communications to public-safety personnel at 72 Army installations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico in a 3-year deal valued at $13 million.

Jill Singer, vice president of defense and national security for AT&T’s Public Sector and FirstNet units, said AT&T officials expect to begin delivering FirstNet devices and services to the U.S. Army installations this month and to complete the process by the end of the years.

“AT&T is very proud to be the provider of FirstNet and very proud to bring the FirstNet capabilities to the Army through this Installation Management Command (IMCOM) acquisition, and we look forward to serving them,” Singer said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.

“This procurement was roughly 3,200 initial users, keeping in mind that it is not meant to cover every Army person. It’s really meant for the first responders associated with the Army.”

Col. Kevin Comfort, Command Provost Marshal at the IMCOM headquarters located in Joint Base San Antonio at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, said the FirstNet system is ideal to meet the needs of the police, fire and EMS personnel serving at the Army installations.

“FirstNet is helping us improve vital communications on our installations, depots and arsenals, including during catastrophic disasters or emergencies when communications capabilities are strained,” Comfort said in a prepared statement.

“We’re adopting FirstNet, because it is designed for public-safety professionals with priority, preemption and highly reliable data communications that will improve our overall response and our interoperability with our civilian partners.”

Singer echoed this sentiment.

“Just like your local municipalities, the Army installations around the country have police, fire, EMS and other emergency services,” Singer said. “They will be able to leverage FirstNet, so that they can improve the safety of the people and the workforce they have on the post.

“Just as important, it allows them to have interoperability with the local municipalities that are outside the base. Often, an event that happens on the base or near the base is jointly responded to by the base personnel, as well as local communities’ first responders.”

Indeed, FirstNet is the only qualified provider of all services needed by these personnel at the U.S. Army installations.

“There are no alternatives available to the federal government that comply with all (not some) of the capabilities that are provided in the public-safety broadband network known as FirstNet,” according to a September 2018 document justifying the contract.

Under the task order, AT&T will deliver almost 3,200 FirstNet connections, more than 3,000 devices and more than 700 signal boosters to enhance connectivity inside facilities, according to an AT&T press release. As with all FirstNet subscribers, the U.S. Army also has access to the dedicated FirstNet fleet of 76 deployable SatCOLTs, flying COWs and the FirstNet One blimp to provide LTE coverage where the AT&T terrestrial network is not available.

This U.S. Army contract represents the beginning of a growing trend for FirstNet, according to Singer.

“I would say that, in the lifespan of FirstNet, we’re just getting started,” she said. “I think that you’ll see more and more federal entities—including military entities—using and acquiring FirstNet to support their responders.”

Singer said that AT&T is working with the U.S. Army to determine where coverage may need to be enhanced at the installations, acknowledging that deploying cell sites on and around military sites requires careful planning.

“I would stay that it is still a judicious process to determine what you would do on a military installation, because there are many activities on an Army installation,” Singer said. “You certainly do need to make sure that, if you are bringing in a new tower, it will not disrupt the missions that were happening there.

“I would say that we have good support and cooperation in working with the military, and I’d say that we have mutual interest in making sure that our U.S. military—whether it’s the Army or another branch—has not only FirstNet but other capabilities that they need to be successful. We’ll collaborate with them on where we can improve access to AT&T’s network in response to their mission needs.”

 

Tags: homepage-featured-4 Applications Backhaul Coverage/Interference Deployables Federal Government/Military Funding Incident Command/Situational Awareness Long Term Evolution (LTE) News NTIA/FirstNet Policy Public Safety Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet Regional Coordination Software Standards State & Local Government Subscriber Devices System Design System Installation System Operation Tower & Site Tracking, Monitoring & Control Video Wireless Networks News

Related


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    FirstNet is supporting more than 1.5 million connections that are being used by more than 13,000 subscribing agencies through June, representing an adoption rate that likely doubles the number of FirstNet connections reported at this time last year, according to figures released today by AT&T, the nationwide contractor for FirstNet. AT&T CEO John Stankey cited […]
  • AT&T expects to complete 80% of FirstNet next year, as well as nationwide 5G on spectrum below 6 GHz
    AT&T expects to complete 80% of its contracted FirstNet deployment for 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum next fall, and the FirstNet effort is helping the carrier realize its 5G vision on sub-6 GHz spectrum, a company official said last week. “FirstNet is a huge opportunity for us, and—quite frankly—it’s also a mission,” Scott Mair, AT&T’s […]
  • AT&T officials expect greater FirstNet adoption as Band 14 deployment remains ahead of schedule
    AT&T expects greater public-safety adoption of FirstNet in 2019, as subscribers to the system benefit from the carrier’s plans to execute an aggressive coordinated deployment of FirstNet and 5G throughout much of the U.S. during the year, AT&T executives said today during the company’s quarterly earnings call. John Stephens, AT&T’s senior executive vice president and […]
  • AT&T updates FirstNet numbers, says it has closed coverage gap with Verizon
    FirstNet subscribers—more than 11,000 public-safety agencies representing more than 1.2 million connection—have access to an expanding AT&T LTE network that covers more than 2.61 million miles in the U.S., making the coverage difference between AT&T and Verizon “nearly imperceptible,” according to an AT&T executive. “We’ve been on a mission for some time now to make […]

One comment

  1. Avatar Sean Tajkowski 22nd October 2020 @ 12:36 am
    Reply

    They did not choose to use it, like most government groups they were told to use it. Big difference.
    Pretty big marketing spin

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