FirstNet Looks at Recommendations to AT&T Post-Nashville Bombing
Completing a review of the service outages caused by the Dec. 25 bombing in Nashville, which partially destroyed an AT&T central office (see 2012280048), is one of the FirstNet Authority’s “top priorities” this year, Chairman Tip Osterthaler told the authority's board Wednesday. The organization plans to make recommendations to AT&T on how to improve network redundancy, said the public safety network's CEO Edward Parkinson.
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“While FirstNet infrastructure was not directly damaged by the blast, it did cause a network service outage that affected users in the local area as well as other parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama,” Osterthaler said. He, Vice Chairman Richard Carrizzo and other officials met last month in Tennessee with local public safety officials who lost service, Osterthaler said: “In the wake of the Nashville bombing, the outreach to the community that was most impacted … was enormously important.”
The system is holding virtual discussions with first responders in the Nashville region and with federal users affected by the service outage, Parkinson said. The authority is building a “comprehensive picture to review the impacts of this incident on public safety operations,” he said. “Public safety will learn from this event,” he said: “FirstNet, the system, will become stronger as a result.” Officials with the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, which has been part of the meetings, didn’t comment, nor did AT&T.
FirstNet has more than 1.9 million connections, serving more than 15,000 public safety agencies, double the number of connections a year earlier, said Jeff Bratcher, chief network and technology officer. FirstNet is rolling out technology from Intrepid Networks letting agencies identify the vertical access of firefighters and other first responders within 3 meters, he said. That's viewed as “a key component and requirement” of public safety and is available in 105 markets, he said. FirstNet is working with standards bodies on standards for land-mobile-radio to LTE interoperability and has more than 250 devices available for public safety network use, Bratcher said.
Executive Director-Public Safety Advocacy Dave Buchanan said that in the last quarter, the authority had more than 300 meetings with public safety officials and held 23 focus groups. The goals are “mutual understanding and increased trust,” he said. “You cannot have a successful public safety service without direct first responder input,” Parkinson said.
The board met virtually, as it has since the beginning of the pandemic. Parkinson said the board's work hasn’t slowed due to the virus crisis.