PSA Discovery Patterns Weekly News Summary
Fri Jan 8 09:52:44 2016 While We Wait for FirstNet A while ago I wrote an article entitled, “While We Wait for FirstNet,” which was about how Public Safety entities…
Fri Jan 8 09:52:44 2016 While We Wait for FirstNet A while ago I wrote an article entitled, “While We Wait for FirstNet,” which was about how Public Safety entities…
Wed Dec 10 11:53:49 2015 End of 2015 This is the last Public Safety Advocate for 2015, and as required by the writers’ union, I must write about what transpired…
Thu Dec 17, 17:32:35 2015 Some of the State of New Hampshire’s elected officials and their staffs have been conned, hoodwinked, led down Primrose Lane, or whatever you want to…
Dec 11 2015 The most important news of the week is, of course, that on December 9, 2015, the FirstNet Board of Directors approved the final version of its RFP…
For those who do not subscribe to Andy’s Public Safety Advocate Discovery Patterns Weekly News Summary, we have decided to include his comments on items that have piqued his interest…
Let’s hope that what comes out of this is more independence for FirstNet, leaving FirstNet to pick up the pace and get this network in the ground and operational.
IACP Orlando
As I see it, no meaningful private discussions means no partners. No partners means no more money for the network. No more money for the network means at some point FirstNet will not be able to continue to function, which means Public Safety will have lost the most important opportunity it will ever have to fix its interoperability problems.
The majority of the Public Safety community still believes today that this new network is about data and video and not about voice, at least for the foreseeable future.
Now it seems Voice over LTE hype is back in full swing. At the recent APCO event, apparently the word was that the 3GPP will add mission-critical voice to the standards by 2018, so 2018 is when it will be available for FirstNet.
The Public Safety community wants to be more than simply customers on the FirstNet system. They want to be good partners as well. But in order to prepare for FirstNet they need some guidance and they need it soon. Many opportunities to ensure that new Public Safety LMR systems are “FirstNet-ready” will be lost unless this type of information is created and then disseminated in a timely fashion.
The power co-ops would like wireless network access for their smart grid work, for smart meters, and of course, to sell fixed and/or mobile services to their rural customers. These power companies have feet on the street, trucks that service their rural customers, high-tension and other poles that could be used for cell sites, and right of ways that could be used for fiber backhaul or for microwave links. Rural operators want to provide LTE to their customers to be able to offer more of the latest and greatest wireless devices and nationwide roaming.
I would like to see everyone back off and wait until several things happen. First, let’s get the network in place for data and video services. Let’s see how much capacity is really needed by Public Safety, especially during incidents.
FirstNet will be the best thing that has happened to Public Safety in years, but it will require some changes in how law enforcement, fire, EMS, and other agencies work together and coordinate at incidents. Don’t wait for FirstNet to come to your area, get a jump on it now and be ready when it is.
The NPSBN is the most ambitious nationwide network ever undertaken in the United States and it is different from the public commercial networks in many aspects. First and foremost, it must provide the capabilities needed by the Public Safety community, and it must be more reliable.