Enhancing public safety situational awareness, interoperability and security capabilities

August 5, 2021

First responders and those who support them now have access to additional mission-centric applications and solutions. FirstNet®, Built with AT&T* is continuing to spur innovation for public safety, introducing 4 new solutions in collaboration with industry leaders.

“We are here to serve America’s first responders with new tools and technologies on their network, helping to ensure they have access to the information they need, when they need it,” said Jason Porter, President, Public Sector and FirstNet Program at AT&T. “We continue to innovate new solutions and improve existing ones to give public safety a seamless, interoperable experience and equip first responders with better situational awareness.”

The solutions include:

• Motorola Solutions’ MCPTT, Interoperability and Critical Connect – We’re collaborating with Motorola Solutions to deliver a new Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT) solution this winter, enabling public safety agencies to use Motorola Solutions’ cloud-based Critical Connect for essential interoperability. The FirstNet interoperable platform will provide options for connectivity between land mobile radio (LMR) systems, the new MCPTT solution, as well as  AT&T Enhanced Push-To-Talk (EPTT), which is FirstNet Ready®, for seamless communication and collaboration.
  
  
• MissionKeeper® from KSI Data Sciences is an easy-to-use streaming software that gives multiple users access to live streamed video and data from drones, submersibles, robots, dash cams and other IoT devices. And with instant scalability, teams can better collaborate and make field-based decisions quickly, from any location.
  
  
• NetMotion® by Absolute provides a mobile-first VPN solution that helps accelerate, optimize and secure mobile device traffic directly to the dedicated FirstNet network core, improving the user experience by providing resilient connectivity both inside and outside coverage areas. NetMotion is a leading mobile VPN solution that is highly adopted by public safety. FirstNet has expanded its relationship with NetMotion offering multiple ways for public safety to get access to a known solution that provides users a seamless
  mobile experience with the security and controls that agencies require.
  
  
• FirstNet Messaging¹ is a highly secure, group notification and messaging service that integrates seamlessly with a wide range of notification applications.
  

Why this is important

FirstNet is expanding public safety’s network to reach more communities across the country and continuing our roll-out of mission-driven innovative solutions.

“Since FirstNet launched, the network has continued to drive the expansion of the public safety broadband marketplace,”  said Ed Parkinson, CEO of the FirstNet Authority. “We are pleased to join AT&T in welcoming these newest innovations to the FirstNet ecosystem as the network continues to evolve to meet public safety’s critical communications needs.”

These new solutions will give public safety new capabilities:       

• Motorola Solutions Collaboration: Nothing is more crucial during emergency response than reliable voice and data communications between first responders, agencies and jurisdictions. Motorola Solutions is a global leader in mission-critical communication and LMR interoperability. The forthcoming standards-based broadband MCPTT voice, video and data solution will deliver greater situational awareness and more informed emergency response, as well as seamless connectivity to LMR networks through Critical Connect. Mission Critical broadband communications are based on public safety standards set by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) – the body responsible for global LTE and 5G standards – to provide modern, interoperable broadband communications.
    
• MissionKeeper® for Public Safety: A new app launched and now in the FirstNet App Catalog, MissionKeeper by KSI Data Sciences provides near-real time video streaming/archive from drones, phones and IoT devices through a single and shareable view that can be accessed within or  across agencies. MissionKeeper is a secure web-based, collaborative environment that allows public safety to view and share live and archived video and telemetry (altitude, attitude, heading, etc.) from multiple sources over virtually any available network. Invite guest users from other agencies on the fly. MissionKeeper is a scalable, secure, affordable solution for any agency needing to share near real time video with multiple stakeholders for complete situational awareness.
  
  
• NetMotion by Absolute: NetMotion, recently acquired by Absolute Software™, is a leader in next generation Endpoint Resilience™ solutions. It provides a mobile-first, software-based VPN solution that helps accelerate, optimize, and secure mobile device traffic to improve the user experience. NetMotion is a client/server software-only VPN that maintains continuous, reliable connections even when devices are in areas with no coverage, dead spots, or marginal signal strength – and when users roam. Workers can use a combination of networks, roam freely between them, cross gaps in coverage, and suspend and resume sessions without losing connectivity, repeating logins or managing their connections. NetMotion requires just one login to grant a user access for the entire workday and automatically handles subsequent logins. With NetMotion, FirstNet administrators control access to applications and devices – for a single user, a group, or an entire organization. The IT team can set custom access conditions like the time of day, network type, or application bandwidth requirements. Additionally, traffic optimization support includes traffic shaping/Quality of Service (QoS), data compression, seamless roaming, voice/video optimization, and image acceleration. These capabilities help FirstNet users improve throughput speeds, maintain continuous application sessions, and allocate network resources to compensate for weak coverage or intermittent connectivity. As a result, crucial applications get priority, and users can send and receive data more quickly.
  
  
• FirstNet Messaging: This app enhances safety, makes critical communications easier, and is available to first responders on FirstNet – both primary agencies and primary subscriber-paid users – at no additional charge with their FirstNet plans. In fact, we are automatically provisioning FirstNet Messaging to all qualified customers. And because it’s interoperable among agencies and first responders, it enables true collaboration during an emergency.

We continue to listen to public safety and focus on delivering the services they need, on their network. Nowhere else can public safety get the only nationwide, dedicated communications platform with the mission-ready and mission-critical standards-based solutions they need to protect themselves and our communities.

Already more than 17,000 public safety agencies and organizations – accounting for more than 2.5 million connections nationwide² – are on FirstNet. The FirstNet network is providing first responders with truly dedicated coverage and capacity when they need it, unique benefits like always-on priority and preemption, and high-quality Band 14 spectrum. These advanced capabilities help emergency managers, fire, EMS and law enforcement save lives and protect their communities.

For more about the value FirstNet is bringing to public safety, check out FirstNet.com.

<sup>1 FirstNet Messaging is also available to extended primary agencies and subscriber paid users for an additional fee.

2 As of July 2021</sup>