| When the pandemic hit, public safety agencies needed the assurance they could safely and reliably operate. During the FirstNet Authority’s latest webinar in the Emergency Management series, we heard from FirstNet subscribers using the network to support the COVID health crisis and ongoing emergencies. FirstNet helps communities respond to COVID-19. Due to the combined effect of COVID and other emergencies, according to AT&T, first responders are using twice as much data as commercial users during the pandemic. Throughout the last 18 months, FirstNet has been on hand to provide communications solutions at medical facilities, drive through testing sites, and emergency centers, as well as provide options for responders that needed to quarantine or isolate. First responders also tapped into the benefits of the FirstNet Network Deployable program – from January to May 2020, FirstNet mobilized deployables for COVID-related emergencies over 50 times. By the end of the same year, more than 750 deployables had been requested across the country for all emergencies. State of Oregon. Throughout last year’s pandemic response and record-breaking fire season, William Chapman, Oregon State’s Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC), relied on communications over FirstNet to help coordinate resources, provide situational awareness, and keep in touch with public safety partners throughout the state. FirstNet provided the coverage and capacity necessary to maintain full operations at remote emergency operations centers, pop-up hospitals, and vaccination centers. FirstNet fulfilled a fast turn-around request to move emergency operations into a new facility, providing continuous communications to make the transition possible – helping Chapman’s team achieve the goal. “The first challenge was to how to provide service and signals. FirstNet was a big part of that by bringing in hotspots and signals into the room to let the PIO’s continue to work their missions” he recalled. During the 2020 Wildfire season, Oregon public safety officials requested FirstNet deployable assets 11 times. Many firefighters relied on FirstNet deployables to connect to the necessary tools needed to socially distance, receive critical COVID-protocols, or track shipments with protective gear to stay safe. Georgia Emergency Communications Authority (GECA). For GECA Executive Director Michael Nix, FirstNet played a pivotal role maintaining communications at every stage of the state’s pandemic response. Georgia public health officials used FirstNet-enabled phones to remotely manage mass vaccination sites across Georgia. Nix and his team relied on a FirstNet Sat-COLT and mobile hotspots to provide network coverage in remote areas to ensure responders could communicate at quarantine sites. GEMA also used over 600 FirstNet-ready iPads to track administering shots across nine pop-up state-run mass vaccination sites. “When a couple of places required additional coverage, we had our FirstNet team, who was absolutely great, to come in and use some of the existing infrastructure at the sites and augment coverage,” said Nix. “We were super excited to have them come in and work with our local partners to get coverage amplified for those areas.” State of Florida, Division of Emergency Management. FirstNet supported testing and vaccination sites in Florida’s 67 counties and four federal vaccination sites. Telecommunications Administrator and Florida SWIC Benjamin Bass was pleased with how the network provided robust coverage and capacity without issue. With less than a week before the initial delivery date, Bass turned to FirstNet-AT&T for help. Within 24 hours, not only were 2500 iPads located and delivered to Bass, but a FirstNet-AT&T team was on-hand to unbox devices, add protective cases, diagnose non-operational units, and place agency property tags on each device in four days. “Our local FirstNet-ATT rep was there with us – helping us get everything ready. We worked four 14-hour days, that was a feat in itself, but without AT&T-FirstNet we could not have done it for sure.” Thank you to our participants for sharing their experience. Input from our public safety partners is crucial to the ongoing success of advanced public safety communications across the country. To stay updated on FirstNet developments, visit the First Responder Network Authority website. To learn how to organize an engagement in your state, contact your local FirstNet Authority Public Safety Advisor. |