AT&T, Nextivity announce new generation of FirstNet HPUE offerings that include Wi-Fi connectivity

AT&T recently announced the second generation of FirstNet MegaRange offerings, which uses high-power user equipment (HPUE) technology from Nextivity to effectively double the range of 700 MHz Band 14 signals while being more affordable by supporting device access via Wi-Fi.

Matt Walsh–assistant vice president of product management, development and sales for FirstNet, Built by AT&T—said the Wi-Fi connectivity capability within the second generation of MegaRange products greatly expands the practical use of HPUE technology by allowing more devices to benefit from the extended LTE range.

“It simplifies the installation; it simplifies the procurement,” Walsh said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “It’s a single device in which Wi-Fi is now integrated into the solution.

“No longer does the public-safety agency have to buy the HPUE and then also buy a router alongside of it. Now, this device is an all-in-one solution with those HPUE capabilities.”

The device referenced by Walsh is the Nextivity SHIELD MegaFi router, which includes the HPUE technology designed by Assured Wireless. Nextivity purchased Assured Wireless in January.

There are three offering in this new generation of HPUE products, each of which are designed to address different use cases, according to Walsh.

“MegaFi Fixed is intended to be in a certain location with a directional antenna, which allows you to pull that signal as far as possible,” Walsh said. “MegaFi Mobile is designed to be in a vehicle, where you’re not always going to be in a position to re-orient the antenna toward where you think the cell signal is originating. MegaFi Mobile has those antenna differences, so think about that on top of a vehicle.”

“MegaGo sits in a Pelican case and has an antenna that’s actually embedded in the lid of the device, which allows a first responder to set it up and use it in a given location. It adds that next level of portability, but it’s also an all-in-one solution. It’s got enough battery on board for you to operate for hours. It’s got the antenna, so you’re carrying pretty much a full, self-enclosed connectivity solution.”

Under FCC rules, Power Class 1 HPUE—technology that is six times more powerful than a typical cell phone, allowing it to increase the device’s effective range by at least 80%—is only allowed to operate in the U.S. on the 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum licensed to the FirstNet Authority. In 2017, the FirstNet Authority awarded a 25-year contract to AT&T to build out its nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) on the Band 14 spectrum.

“This is specific to Band 14, and Band 14 is specific to FirstNet, so we are the only carrier that can offer this type of service and this type of capability to first responders,” Walsh said.

“It’s really exciting for us to have the capability. We’re really excited about the partnership with Nextivity, and we really think that this product is the next evolution of that MegaRange capability that’s going to make it easier for first responders to use it and put it in the field. It’s going to make it less expensive for them. It’s all the right things for the evolution of this product.”

Nextivity CEO Michiel Lotter echoed this sentiment, citing improvement made in HPUE technology since it first hit the market in early 2021.

“We’ve learned so much from the first generation of HPUE products,” Lotter said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “This second-generation device that we just announced with AT&T is basically the culmination of not just the idea behind the technology and the innovations that we built into the original HPUE product but to add to that all of the feedback that we’ve gotten from customers—what they liked about the technology, what they needed, etc.

“With the support from AT&T, I think we were able to construct a product concept here that really has wide applicability for a number of different use cases. I think that’s probably the biggest difference with what we have here—the completeness of the solution is so much better in this generation of the product than it was with the first one.”

Humza Shamsuddin, technology director for the Bristol Kendall Fire Protection District in Illinois, highlighted the practical value of the MegaRange HPUE for his firefighters

“We have a diverse geographic area, including a river valley that impedes communication where you tend to drop off the radar for cellular communication,” Shamsuddin said in a prepared statement. “Many of these coverage gaps were addressed when the agency switched to FirstNet.

“In fringe network areas, FirstNet MegaRange allows us to stay connected with a higher level of reliability. The areas that we knew were dead zones for a previous carrier—magically, we didn’t really have them with FirstNet.”

Walsh noted that the new generation of MegaRange HPUE products complement other FirstNet deployable solutions, including the Compact Rapid Deployable (CRD) and the miniCRD, both of which can be owned by public-safety entities.

“Think about a disaster-recovery situation, where a CRD is placed out at a hurricane-impacted area,” Walsh said. “You could set up a command center that is using MegaFi Fixed to then connect to that CRD. And because you’re using MegaFi, you’ve now effectively doubled your range of what you would get from the CRD in that situation.

“You have options. It can be MegaFi Mobile, it can be MegaFi Fixed, it can be MegaGo, so you have those different variants.”