What is FirstNet? What Do You Need to Connect?

With 1,500 public safety agencies (and rising) adopting FirstNet, it's understandable for there to be questions regarding the relatively new concept. I wrote to AT&T with in hopes they'd help clarify a few key points. 

The first step was to get a clear definition of FirstNet. I also wanted to know what it would be like for law enforcement to be connected - to paint a picture of a regular day if you will, once you're connected, and then find out what type of equipment law enforcement would need to use to connect. 

Recently, AT&T came out with a FirstNet Dealer Program. In the official announcement in late July (Officer.com/21011979), Chris Sambar, senior vice president, AT&T – FirstNet is quoted: “The FirstNet Dealer Program makes it easy for public safety agencies to work with the same solution providers they know and trust to sign up for FirstNet service." This piqued my interest and looked into it a bit more with "How Does The FirstNet Dealer Program Work?", Officer.com/21015145.

To put it bluntly, FirstNet isn't exactly a 'product.' 

In a public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority, AT&T has taken themselves to task to build, operate and maintain this much-needed technology upgrade. The communication challenges public safety had experienced during the September 11, 2001 attacks made it clear the needs of public safety were more than what the commercial offerings could provide at the time. Since then we've seen brand new concepts come to light. Interoperability was on the top of nearly every communication and/or high-tech elevator pitch for years. As the internet then became less of a specialized tool and more integrated into our lives, the Internet of Things became ... a thing. Slowly almost every device you can think of was connected to a network in some way or another. 

"FirstNet is the country’s nationwide communications platform dedicated to America’s first responders to help them connect to the critical information they need every day and in every emergency," says AT&T. Adding that it's a single national public safety broadband network utilizing LTE built on global 3GPP standards, making communications inherently interoperable.

The decision to move to FirstNet is each public safety entity's choice. Subscribers will be able to gain access to the communications platform. The intent behind the Dealer Program seems to be to streamline this process a bit more.

If I'm understanding this correctly, it's like the seating on a large airplane with the plane representing the type of networks to which people can connect. Here, the majority of the people are sitting in coach and communicating with regular civilian technologies and networks. FirstNet would be like a first-class seat, first responders able to connect to a network platform to which only the public safety subscribers would have access.

I'm told, however, that access can be granted to an extended community like essential government services, education, transportation, and utilities. These organizations would be those that could be called on for first responder support for mitigation, remediation, overhaul, clean up and restoration to the provisioning of other services required during the time of an emergency or its aftermath.

These would be known as "extended primary users" and, as AT&T reports, eligibility will be rigorously reviewed before service is approved.

Connecting to FirstNet

If you have a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone, chances are you've grown accustomed to seeing the little pie-piece of lines indicating that you've connected to a wireless network. It probably only comes to mind once there's a little exclamation mark next to it or you suddenly see 4G or 3G instead. Unless I connect to a public network, leaving a wireless connection causes my smartphone data plan to kick on. 

It looks like connecting to FirstNet will work quite the same. AT&T says that devices on the network will display "FirstNet" as the network on which they're operating. There are a couple of prerequisites though.

1. The device must be FirstNet-enabled. Device descriptions should have this spelled out, but if you're not sure check with the manufacturer. We collected a few for you within the July/August issue of Law Enforcement Product News. You can find a short list of them at "5 FirstNet-Ready Tech and Devices", Officer.com/21011224. 
2. Subscribers will need a FirstNet SIM card inserted into the device. These cards will be available in AT&T retail stores for eligible first responders that sign up for service for the FirstNet Subscriber Paid offering. 

With a 25-year long "public-private partnership", AT&T reports that the FirstNet Authority will be providing 20 MHz of "high-value, telecommunications spectrum (Band 14) and success-based payments of $6.5 billion over the first 5 years to support the network build-out." The intention is that these committed resources should resolve many coverage issues law enforcement agencies may be facing today without requiring additional equipment.

AT&T says that they're spending $40 billion over the life of the contract to build, operate, and maintain the network. Over the next several years, they say that they'll be putting Band 14 on tens of thousands of new and existing sites around the country to improve coverage and capacity. They already have Band 14 on more than 2,500 sites across the country (live in 40 states) and there are 10,000+ currently underway (in 51 states and territories).

There are also deployable stations if that little bit of extra coverage is necessary. Called Satellite Cell on Light Trucks (or SatCOLT), can help keep public safety officers connected with Band 14. Reportedly, Chino, Calif. recently used a dedicated SatCOLT during their July 4 celebrations. 

Ever hear of a 'Hackathon'?

Earlier this year, AT&T ran a development "marathon" for app developers to create solutions for all of public safety. One of the teams during the April event worked on a solution to help firefighters locate people inside a building. (Read more on this with the Law Enforcement Technology July 2018 article "The New Emergency Communications Superhighway", Officer.com/21006392.)

"Ultimately, the long-term goal of FirstNet hackathons is to inspire our teams to continue to develop for public safety, whether through their prototypes or other ideas, and to submit fully developed apps for inclusion in the FirstNet App Catalog. Those apps can then be rated by FirstNet as either Certified or Reviewed depending on their performance," says AT&T.

More hackathon events are tentatively scheduled for later this year.

Hopefully, I was able to draw out a rough sketch to help outline some surface issues for FirstNet. Continue your research with the articles connected throughout this piece and by visiting the official FirstNet website at FirstNet.gov.