FirstNet Getting Increased Use, Demand Tied to COVID-19, CEO Tells ICWE

When Congress approved the launch of FirstNet in 2012 “it was hard to imagine the environment in which we find ourselves today,” Parkinson said. Public safety was clear FirstNet had to support national, regional and local emergencies, he said. “There was no compromise,” he said. “We’re seeing a huge increase in the use of FirstNet through this pandemic,” he said.

Healthcare workers and first responders are using the network at COVID-19 testing sites, field hospitals and incident command posts, Parkinson said. Public safety is making increased use of telehealth on FirstNet, he said. Since the pandemic started, all the interactions between FirstNet staff and first responders have been virtual, he said.

AT&T is expanding the “footprint” of the network “not just in urban and suburban areas, but most importantly, into our rural communities,” Parkinson said. “We have seen FirstNet’s impact and momentum increase across the country,” he said. New cellsites are being deployed in every state, he said: “These sites are part of the FirstNet state plans and are based on public safety input and where they say they needed coverage the most.” Adoption is also increasing, with more than 13,000 agencies, representing more than 1.5 million connections, now using FirstNet, he said.

Broadband won't be a “total replacement” for the land-mobile radio long used by first responders, said Josh Lober, CEO of wireless systems provider SLA. “Each system brings its own advantages,” he said. “Broadband offers enhanced voice quality, an expansive coverage area, as well an integrated features and application interfaces,” he said. “LMR systems are proven, robust and reliable, with dedicated infrastructure and spectrum.” LMR radios are built for one thing, he said: “They’re a reliable solution.”

SLA thinks the best solution is a “hybrid network,” Lober said. The company seeks to provide an interoperable network with “traditional dispatch consoles, LMR radios and broadband push-to-talk,” he said. Interoperability is also important, he said. “It doesn’t make sense for us to have a solution where agencies or businesses on one carrier can’t communicate with another carrier,” he said. Innovation comes when companies figure out how to address the needs of customers, he said. Law enforcement agencies often have needs “very different” from those of fire departments, he said. Lober expects 5G to “have a large impact” in helping agencies cut latency in their communications.

Mission-critical push-to-talk (MCPTT) is growing in popularity, first in South Korea, and now in the U.S. and Europe, said Timothy Paul, Samsung Electronics America senior sales manager. “Because it runs over LTE it has to have technology capabilities that can manage … preemption and prioritization,” he said: “It has to have security considerations. It has to have capability to handle large group calls.”

Nicholas Falgiatore, senior technology specialist at consultant Mission Critical Partners, said most public safety agencies still aren’t ready to accept MCPTT over cellular as an alternative to traditional LMR. “There’s a lot of reasons for that but at the core it comes down to network reliability and coverage,” he said. “There’s not trust in the networks that are available, be it AT&T FirstNet, Verizon or other carriers, that they truly can replace what engineered LMR systems are doing today.”

Most of the interest is from local government users, transportation companies and others that don’t have same demands for coverage and reliability, Falgiatore said. Those investing are most interested in cutting costs compared with an LMR network.