Public Safety Advocate: 2020 in the Mirror, This Year’s Grades
A couple of weeks ago I had a routine hip replacement that went well but we did not anticipate a week or so in a rehab facility. I hope these…
High-Power User Equipment (HPUE)
Public Safety Advocate: Wildfire Information, APCO Week, BlackBerry Phone?
When there is a wildland fire, especially one that is growing quickly and threatening homes, public safety, government officials, and citizens can gather information in several ways. First, they can…
Public Safety Advocate: FirstNet Deployables
The last week of July is turning out to be a busy one. Most FirstNet (Built with AT&T) “watchers” are busy tracking new public safety Band 14 build-outs and new…
Public Safety Advocate: PSBTA Visions; Smartphone’s Little Brother, Questions Asked
PSBTA Vision 2022 FirstNet Users Summit The Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) will be holding its a Vision Summit that has been designed exclusively for the FirstNet user community….
Public Safety Advocate: Wireless Coverage Extension
It is often desirable to extend wireless coverage into areas that are not well covered. Those with experience in the Land Mobile Radio (LMR) world are familiar with communications range…
Public Safety Advocate: FirstNet (Built with AT&T) Announces More Communications Tools
At IWCE 2022, FirstNet announced a new, significant upgrade to FirstNet (Built with AT&T) that prompted me to write about communications tools for first responders. One of these tools is…
Public Safety Advocate: Communications Tools for First Responders
It is common knowledge that over the past five years the FirstNet Authority and FirstNet (Built with AT&T) have built the only nationwide public-safety broadband network and made it available…
Public Safety Advocate: IWCE 2022
We will be attending the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) trade show next week so there won’t be time to publish an issue of the Advocate. We will be back…
Public Safety Advocate: Resolutions to Enhance Public-Safety Communications – Part One
I trust you and yours had a great holiday season! As we move on to 2022, hopes are that Covid will finally be under control and we will watch our…
Public Safety Advocate: FirstNet Record Adds, In-Vehicle FirstNet and LMR, NextNav’s New Partnership, Biden Nominates Rosenworcel
FirstNet (Built with AT&T) just closed out its best quarter for new users. Numbers at the end of September 2021 show 18,500 agencies and 2.8 million individual users are now…
Public Safety Advocate: FirstNet Authority Off-Network Communications Solutions RFI, L3Harris, HPUE
APCO 2021 The APCO 2021 conference is taking place in San Antonio this week. Many attendees come from the public-safety community or are involved in some way with public-safety communications….
Public Safety Advocate: PTT vs. MCPTT, 5G Sweet Spot, FirstNet Apps Verified/Certified, 4.9 GHz, Fiber, and More
First, some clarification. “Mission-Critical Push-To-Talk” (MCPTT) is the form of Push-To-Talk (PTT) the 3GPP standards body developed in accordance with its PTT standard. However, networks, including FirstNet (Built with AT&T),…
Public Safety Advocate: PTT Corrections, CHP Joins FirstNet, Smarter Smartphones, Rural Broadband Feeding Frenzy
First and foremost, Tango Tango Push-To-Talk (PTT) is FirstNet-certified for both the Android operating system and iOS (Apple), not Android-only as stated in the list of vendors that have met…
Public Safety Advocate: Is Your Agency Using FirstNet? If Not, Why Not?
Since the build-out of the FirstNet network began, many federal, state, and local public-safety agencies have become part of the growing number of entities using this Nationwide Public Safety Broadband…
Public Safety Advocate: NPSTC, Z-Axis, MegaRange
Last week I listened to a webinar sponsored by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) that was presented to the LTE/LMR Integration Committee, which I am a member of,…