AT&T officials shed light on ‘extended primary’ category of FirstNet users, prioritization details
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AT&T officials shed light on ‘extended primary’ category of FirstNet users, prioritization details
ORLANDO—Personnel within the utility, transportation and healthcare sectors are among those qualified to subscribe to FirstNet and have priority access across the AT&T system, but many questions remain about the “extended primary” category of users and some details regarding the prioritization-selection process, according to AT&T officials.
AT&T is contracted to build, maintain and upgrade the FirstNet nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN), and the telecom giant has agreed to provide preemptive access to “primary” FirstNet subscribers—fire, EMS, law-enforcement, 911 and emergency-operations-centers users.
However, the process for determining who else is eligible to access the FirstNet system—the “extended primary” subscribers—has been more complicated, because there are so many varied uses cases for certain personnel to support a public-safety response, according to Walt Rivenbark, AT&T’s assistant vice president for public safety and FirstNet.
“We’re listening to customers,” Rivenbark said yesterday during an IWCE 2018 workshop. “We don’t think we have it all figured out.”
Chris Sambar, AT&T’s senior vice president for FirstNet, expressed a similar sentiment during an interview last week with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.
“The definition of primary and extended primary was not a hard-and-fast definition in the contract—purposely—and we’re kind of learning as we go,” Sambar said. “We keep getting different [extended-primary] use cases every day.”
This is because the key driver in determining who qualifies to be an “extended primary” user is whether the person works with public safety during emergency responses. That can vary greatly in each community, as people with the same job title may have drastically different roles.
“We’re trying to sort through it,” Sambar said. “We want to maintain the integrity of the system and make sure that the right people are getting access to the network, but we don’t want to go overboard and let everybody on.”
Rivenbark also emphasized the need for network integrity, noting that providing too many people with priority access to AT&T’s network would negate the effectiveness of the prioritization scheme.
The key driver in determining who qualifies to be an “extended primary” user is whether they work with public safety during emergency responses, Rivenbark said. Some guidance is provided in the law that established FirstNet, but the FirstNet Eligibility Council is developing a list of eligible subscribers to the FirstNet system, he said.
“If there’s a group that’s not eligible that you think should be eligible, bring that [concern] to your FirstNet solution specialist, and they can voice that concern to the [FirstNet Eligibility Council],” Rivenbark said.
Within the primary category, there will be three tiers of prioritization when AT&T completes the FirstNet LTE core—something that is scheduled to happen this month—while extended-primary users will have the same level of prioritization, without preemptive access. However, a primary user can “uplift” an extended-primary user to the primary level temporarily, if needed—for example, a utility worker helping to clear a downed power line that is blocking a road.
The Western coast of Alaska is a prime target for acts of terrorism, access to the United States for countries West of Alaska during any declaration of war, and other acts of danger to the United States. Ecologically, as sea levels continue to rise, many coastal villages are now or soon to be relocated to higher ground in islands and coastlines that are of relatively flat terrain making the search for higher ground a real challenge. I therefore strongly urge AT&T to include all forms of private and public sector maritime providers who wish to participate in emergency services to be included in the FirstNet as primary or “extended Primary” members. I believe that the taxi companies “Uber” and “Lyft” have already been granted the title of essential critical incident businesses with a government contract to transport government officials in times of crisis. Forgive me if I am mistaken on this.
Lessons have been learned from recent disasters in the United States and one of those lessons is that the use and assistance of private sector maritime providers by FirstNet, DEC, local and federal emergency agencies and the like became surprisingly essential and effective to the coordination of assistance to the public and to primary emergency agencies.
Most of these private and public sector maritime providers are not solely dedicated to emergency situations as they are businesses dealing with tourism, transportation of essential needs to remote communities, commercial fishing and more. However, not all, but many of these providers would be available and happy to assist in whatever manner necessary to support and aid wherever it is necessary under the guidance and orders of the lead situation coordinator.
During times of ecological disasters, potential military attacks, and other emergency situations it is well known that telephone services and varied radio communications (VHF, etc) become so clogged that emergency services are unable to communicate with each other without outside interruptions. That is why FirstNet is so essential to all agencies contracted to assist the lead coordinators in doing their part to remedy whatever situation is at hand.
It is for these reasons that I fully support the addition of the West Coast of Alaska maritime industries which are willing to participate in the FirstNet services while obeying all of the regulations set forth by FirstNet and incident command centers to be certified as primary FirstNet members.
If this proposal is approved, I would suggest posting the opportunity in local newspapers and local radio and television newscasts.
Thank you for your time. I wish good health and happiness to all!
Randi Iverson