Mobile app enables push-to-talk for public safety during COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced healthcare workers and public health officials to interact frequently with first responders and at times to act as emergency responders themselves. The crisis underlines the importance of smartphone push-to-talk capability, which FirstNet announced during Q1. But while the public safety industry has been waiting for FirstNet’s PTT, a smartphone app created by L3Harris has been filling the gap for some jurisdictions.

SOURCE: FierceWireless

DATE: May 6, 2020

In California’s Mammoth Lakes region, L3Harris’ BeOn app is helping healthcare workers communicate efficiently as they visit patients and trace contacts. Mammoth Lakes Fire Chief Frank Frievalt, whose teams were using the app before the pandemic, said extending the service to healthcare workers was an obvious choice. “With blinding speed and almost no cost you can build these detailed networks that don’t require frequency management or licensing or programming,” he said. “They’re just built as talk groups on the cellular side. A lot of it is involving a lot of people who don’t know how to use a radio. But they do know how to use their phone.” READ MORE