With FirstNet’s historic announcement of its selection of AT&T as its partner, we are about to achieve the promise of a state-of-the-art, nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network. Each state will soon be presented with the opportunity of FirstNet’s proposed network build – one that will forever transform and improve emergency response. States would receive […]
FirstNet Works to Foster Innovation in Public Safety Apps
By Jeff Posner, FirstNet Senior Applications Architect If you know FirstNet, then you know we are focused on putting broadband technology into the hands of public safety personnel nationwide. What you may not know is that FirstNet also is leading the way on a host of public safety-focused technologies, not the least of which is in […]
Partnering to Improve Public Safety Apps
This is a companion post to the AT&T Developer Program blog. Mark Reddish, Senior Counsel and Manager of Government Relations For most people, a dead battery on our smartphone or slow download is just an inconvenience. But imagine the impact of a dead battery to public safety professionals or the citizens they’re trying to serve […]
Equipping Volunteer Responders with Broadband Technologies
This blog is a repost from FirstNet’s website. By Vicki Lee, FirstNet Association Manager FirstNet has been charged by Congress to build, operate, and maintain the first high-speed, nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to public safety. Knowing those that we serve at FirstNet is all too important. Throughout FirstNet’s consultations with the states and territories, […]
Getting Ever Closer to Solving Wireless 911 Location Accuracy
Yesterday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote a blog announcing that he has circulated an order that, per the tentative agenda also announced yesterday, would “ensure that accurate caller location information is automatically provided to public safety officials for all wireless calls to 911, including for indoor calls, to meet consumer and public safety needs and […]
Mutual Aid: App Developers and Public Safety Experts Collaborating
By Mark Reddish It’s no surprise that public safety apps are better when developed with input from public safety experts. What’s surprising, or at least exciting, is that professionals from two different worlds can work so well together when they’re practically speaking different languages. Great things happen when developers and public safety professionals collaborate and […]
Rapid Response: Building public safety apps in 24 hours
By Mark Reddish If you’d seen the empty case of Red Bull, you’d believe me when I say that writing code can be extreme. On May 2-3, I experienced my first app hackathon, an event that was hosted by AT&T and held at 1776 in Washington, D.C. The 24 hour-long competition drew over one hundred […]
Innovative Ideas from the Boston Emerging Technology Forum
By Mark Reddish On December 3-4, APCO held an Emerging Technology Forum (ETF) in Boston, MA. We were honored to have several officials join us, including FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, FirstNet Board Member Kevin McGinnis, and representatives from Boston police, fire, and EMS. And, it being an APCO event, the audience was full of public safety professionals. […]
Data Jamming for Public Safety
Dateline October 2013 Public safety is clearly immersed in a new era of communications technology. FirstNet continues to make progress, including the related planning efforts at the state and local levels. The APCO 2013 exhibit floor featured more broadband and advanced communications tools, gear (some wearable), networks, and devices than ever before. At APCO 2013 […]
Happy Anniversary
Today marks the one-year anniversary of enactment of landmark legislation that created FirstNet and will lead to the deployment of an advanced, nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network. From the printed words of the law, we are witnessing tangible evidence of what public safety successfully fought for, including a dedicated FirstNet board, armed with spectrum […]
