Policy

Federal PSAP funding to be far less than promised

LONG BEACH, Calif.–When President George Bush signed telecom legislation in December 2004 that authorized $250 million annually for the next five years to fund public-safety answering point upgrades and create a national coordination office, the PSAP community knew Congress wouldn’t appropriate the full amount. What they didn’t know was just how little they would be getting over the next couple of years

Rebanding gets started

After years of proceedings, the long-awaited 800 MHz rebanding officially begins today with the beginning of the voluntary negotiation period for Wave 1 licensees in the Channel 1-120 range, which must be cleared before other 800 MHz users can be relocated to frequencies

Harris to present platform at NENA conference

Harris will present a paper on its new H-Class content-delivery platform for public safety at the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) conference this week in Long Beach, Calif.

Government broadband debate could affect more than consumers

Telecom carriers are lobbying federal and state lawmakers heavily to prevent government entities from offering telecom services to protect the incumbents’ commercial interests, but the effort ultimately could negatively impact public-safety communications

Open Mobile Alliance confirms industry standard for PoC

The Open Mobile Alliance has made available the OMA push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) 1.0 Candidate Enabler, providing the mobile industry with the ability to deliver new services across multiple carriers and geographic boundaries

McCain, Lieberman make initial DTV move in the Senate

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) today introduced legislation that would require television broadcasters to clear valuable 700 MHz spectrum for public-safety entities and other users by Jan. 1, 2009

NAED honors top 911 dispatcher

Julie Regier, a dispatcher for Austin-Travis (Texas) County EMS emergency dispatch, was honored as the first annual Dispatcher of the Year as selected by the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch

APCO to help train Afghanistan emergency communicators

The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials this week said that the Kabul City Police (KCP) Communications Center Working Group has selected the APCO Institute Public Safety Telecommunicator I course as the standard it will use for training Afghanistan’s first public safety communications professionals.

Stevens’ FCC efforts foiled again

Christine Kurth yesterday withdrew her name from consideration for an FCC appointment, marking the second time a candidate backed by powerful Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has opted against pursuing a position on the regulatory body.

House resolution seeks FCC reconsideration of BPL

ARRL, formerly known as the American Radio Relay League, this week expressed support for a proposed U.S. House of Representatives resolution that asks the FCC to “reconsider and review” its interference policies as they relate to broadband-over-powerline (BPL) deployments.

Federal PSAP funding to be far less than promised

Rebanding gets started

Harris to present platform at NENA conference

Government broadband debate could affect more than consumers

Open Mobile Alliance confirms industry standard for PoC

McCain, Lieberman make initial DTV move in the Senate

NAED honors top 911 dispatcher

APCO to help train Afghanistan emergency communicators

Stevens’ FCC efforts foiled again

House resolution seeks FCC reconsideration of BPL

Commentary

LTE and liability: Why the fire service must move forward with digital incident command

Partnership and collaboration must be the foundation for emergency communications

FirstNet success means no hypothetical ‘shots’ need to be fired, Swenson says

Events

UC Ezines

IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

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