AT&T’s FirstNet core goes live

FirstNet and its partner contractor, AT&T, have announced the go-live of the public safety communication system’s network core.

“One year ago this week, following a rigorous procurement process, we formed a public–private partnership with AT&T to execute on public safety’s vision for this network,” said Jeff Bratcher, FirstNet’s chief technology officer and operations director.

“The input and feedback we received from public safety has come to life with this core,” he added.

“It’s been a non-stop 12 months. And we’re proud of the quick progress we’ve made in this short time frame, consistently delivering on or ahead of schedule,” said Chris Sambar, senior vice president, AT&T–FirstNet.

In a statement, AT&T said it has put hundreds of millions of dollars into the core, which is built on physically separate hardware — only FirstNet traffic will move through it.

The core is designed with a defence-in-depth approach that helps maintain security at every level, which will be monitored 24/7 by a dedicated security operations centre.

AT&T expects more than 197 PB of data to cross the network on an average business day.

“This is what public safety has spent years advocating for,” said Scott Edson, executive director, Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communication System (LA-RICS). “We at LA-RICS look forward to connecting our sites to the FirstNet network core.”

First responders can access First Priority which, according to AT&T, turns “always-on access to priority and pre-emption up a notch”, giving first responders two more priority levels.

There is also an Incident Management Portal, which enables public safety agencies to uplift critical users to the highest priority levels in near real time. Agencies can also temporarily uplift other non-first responder users, such as utilities or transportation authorities.

“Outdated communications capabilities are a threat to public safety. We’ve seen it repeatedly when disasters strike – from September 11, the Boston Marathon and Parkland,” added Ed Davis, former Boston police commissioner.

“We’ve been advocating for the future of communications to bring us a modern solution that will empower us with next-generation tools. And with FirstNet, that future is here, giving us an experience we can’t get on any commercial network,” he added.

“Those on the front lines can now evolve the way we communicate, using mission-critical text and data on top of voice to ensure we are connected to as much information as possible to achieve our missions. Because the more connected we can be, the more protected we can be.”

Users will have dedicated FirstNet SIM cards. FirstNet-ready devices already on the market include the Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ and the NETGEAR Nighthawk M1 mobile hotspot router. Support for rugged devices such as the Sonim XP8 and XP5s will be coming soon. Firmware updates might be needed for other devices.

Testing and deployment

“To ensure the network delivers the performance and integrity public safety demands, the FirstNet core will continue to undergo validation and testing with the First Responder Network Authority,” said Bratcher.

“Alongside AT&T, we will exercise the functionality of the public safety features, measure redundancy under a variety of conditions, and validate the overall performance and resiliency of network components,” Bratcher added.

“With the results of these tests, the First Responder Network Authority and AT&T will validate that the network will be there when public safety needs it.”

Bratcher also noted, “While we are moving to expedite this process, we will not sacrifice delivering a robust, first class, secure broadband experience to our public safety users,” adding that the final phase of testing and validation is expected to be completed in the April/May time frame.

“In the meantime, FirstNet users can begin moving to the core as part of a controlled introduction by AT&T. Once this phase of testing and validation is completed, more FirstNet users will move to the core,” he said.

“We’ve been transitioning to FirstNet … [and] we’ve already seen the tremendous difference FirstNet can make in helping us cut through the clutter and get access to the vital information we need to keep ourselves and those we protect out of harm’s way,” said Brazos County Sheriff Chris Kirk.

“That was before the launch of the FirstNet network core. So we’re expecting it to only get better from here, which we believe will continue to improve our operations.”

Image courtesy FirstNet.

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