Police and fire departments across the country took to social media early Thursday to offer customers advice on how to contact them if cellphones were showing an SOS.
So what is FirstNet and how is AT&T involved?
What Is FirstNet?
FirstNet is a wireless broadband network designed solely for first responders during times of crises like natural or human-made disasters. FirstNet is not a commercial network and only organizations authorized by the First Responder Network Authority, which is responsible for operating the FirstNet network, are allowed to use FirstNet.
FirstNet came into existence after the 9/11 terrorist attacks revealed issues in how emergency services communicated with the public and one another. Radio systems used by law enforcement, fire services, EMS, and emergency management were often not easily accessible or reliable. Landline and mobile networks also quickly got jammed by the high volume of calls in the wake of the attack.
In 2012, Congress established the First Responder Network Authority through the Middle-Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act and with recommendations from the 9/11 Commission Report. The goal of the program was to create a stronger alliance between the private sector and governments so public safety officers get first priority for coverage and calls.
“The vision of FirstNet is to connect large metropolitan cities to the smallest rural areas so that our first responders and public safety community can talk to each other and communicate,” said Kay Kapoor, former president of AT&T’s global public sector, in a 2017 YouTube video.
Along with the goal to extend to smaller towns, Congress allocated 20 megahertz of spectrum and $7 billion as part of the Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Actto create a network built solely for first responders in 2012. More than 25,000 public safety agencies across 2.91 million square miles now use FirstNet, according to the service.
In March 2017, FirstNet and AT&T agreed to a 25-year deal to build out and maintain the network. Its price tag has been estimated as high as $100 billion. In 2018, the network launched along with the FirstNet Core, a physically separate piece of infrastructure that connects radio networks to phones, computers, tablets and more.
Earlier this month, the First Responder Network Authority committed an additional $6.3 billion to AT&T to expand 5G capabilities and mission-critical services over the next 10 years.
How Did the Outage Affect FirstNet?
Because of the outage, some emergency services had to use maps to get to their destinations because FirstNet went down, Matt Zavadsky, chief transformation officer at MedStar Mobile Healthcare, told NBC5.
“When the system went down at 2:30 ... area law enforcement, fire agencies, first responders all over lost connectivity with their field units,” Zavadsky said. “So we had to revert to radio dispatching and actually using maps and ambulances to get to calls because the mapping systems weren’t working because the cell system was down.”
Other North Texas police departments reported no impact from the wireless outage. A Dallas Police Department spokesperson said none of its 911 calls were affected.
By 1 p.m. Dallas time, FirstNet was fully operational again, said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
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