Friday fragments — critical comms snippets for 8 April

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 8 April 2016.

Don’t miss the early-bird rates. Comms Connect will return to Sydney in June and will be a must-attend event for everyone in the greater Sydney region. Early-bird registration rates — up to $150 off the full price — are available until 13 May, so make sure you take advantage of them and book early. Discounted rates are available for registered volunteers with the following organisations: Rural/Country Fire Services; State Emergency Services; ambulance services; NSW Volunteer Rescue Association; land management services; Coast Guard; lifesaving organisations; Australian Red Cross; and St John Ambulance. If you’re unable to attend the speaker sessions, you can still attend the exhibition by getting a free Expo Pass. The two-day program is essentially complete, and it can be viewed on the Comms Connect Sydney website. See you there!

This is a good idea. Coming up on 10–16 April, the US public safety community will celebrate National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, which was founded in 1981 to “raise public awareness of the hard work and dedication of public safety telecommunicators”. April is also 9-1-1 Education Month in the US.

Towers come down. Forty-eight radio towers that served Voice of America for 50 years came tumbling down in a controlled demolition this week. Watch the video here.

Sweden investigates mobile broadband. The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), together with the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, Police and Armed Forces, has completed an initial study into provision of mobile broadband communications for public protection and disaster relief. The PTS says it has “identified several options for mobile broadband solutions which can be expected to fulfil a subset of identified needs and requirements”, but that more analysis will be needed.

FirstNet device approvals. In a blog post, Kameron Benham, FirstNet’s Device Test & Certification Manager, has outlined the US agency’s “high-level vision for approving wireless mobile devices to operate on the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN)”. Read about it here.

One smartphone or 7 radios? Here’s an interesting article looking at the requirements and options available for provision of radio communications solutions on indigenous American lands in the US, with a particular focus on the Seneca nation.