Three years of public-private partnership for public safety’s network

By Edward Parkinson, CEO, FirstNet Authority

This week marks some major milestones in the history of public safety’s nationwide broadband network. It was three years ago that we, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority), entered into a groundbreaking 25-year contract to build, deploy, and maintain FirstNet, America’s nationwide public safety broadband network.

Since that time, FirstNet has expanded coverage and capacity for first responders in all 50 states, 5 territories and the District of Columbia. Now just two years into the five-year buildout of FirstNet’s dedicated Band 14 spectrum, AT&T recently announced that more than 11,000 public safety agencies and organizations are using more than 1.2 million connections. READ MORE