Again, last week was the eighteenth anniversary of 9/11 and the start of a larger movement by the public-safety community to fix its communications systems. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)…
Above all else, this week was the anniversary of the terrible tragedies of 9/11. For public safety, 9/11 was also the beginning of a nationwide effort to address a key…
In opening, I would like to welcome our new subscribers. The topics we cover relate to wireless communications, especially as used by public safety, and vary from week to week…
Last week I attended the State of Arizona PSAP/Integration Planning Meeting held in Phoenix. It was well attended and the content was right on target. It is great that Arizona…
As promised, the FirstNet Authority has published its five-year reinvestment roadmap as approved by the board of directors some time ago. Official publication had been held up so the FirstNet…
As advertised last week, this week’s Advocate is late because I spent much of the week at the APCO Conference in Baltimore. Having been raised on the East Coast, I was concerned…
After a week of travel, it’s nice to be back in Phoenix but Santa Barbara still feels like my home and I enjoyed interacting with many of the folks I…
This week’s column is late due to my travel commitments this week and there will be no Advocate next week since I will be in Santa Barbara, my old stomping grounds, to…
3GPP, the standards body that created LTE, now seems to be focused on 5G with a few side trips back to LTE. Its Radio Access Network (RAN) Plenary sessions took…
This week the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) organization under The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is holding its annual meeting to discuss with public safety and the…
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the need to find better, open-standard ways to bridge the gap between Land Mobile Radio (LMR) and FirstNet for Push-To-Talk (PTT). The Public…
By necessity, this week’s Advocate will begin at the beginning. During the FirstNet RFP process there were three bidders. As we all know, AT&T won the bid over Rivada Networks, which bid…
During the first full year of network availability, FirstNet has demonstrated how it increases first responders’ effectiveness in handling most disasters including wildfires, tornadoes, flooding, and hurricanes on the East…
The FirstNet contract as awarded to AT&T, now FirstNet (Built with AT&T), is a twenty-five-year agreement. The initial five years represent the time in which FirstNet must meet its obligations…
Though it represents much more than a single day, this is the week we honor D-Day and the far too many brave people who lost their lives as they valiantly…