FirstNet: All AT&T LTE bands to be available to public safety this year

[kevink1]

And of course mountain areas are poorly covered.

[i0wnj00]

Has there been any word of California wanting to opt out? I doubt they'll want to opt out...

LA County pretty much did an facto opt out, instead of waiting for FCC to figure out who to award the license.
LA-RICS already has an operational Public Safety network running on B14 LTE and UHF T-Band (470 – 512 MHz) developed by Motorola.
They tested PTT over LTE and able to communicate with other LMRs. Eventually, LA County will have to leave the T-Band and go for an all LTE solution. The cell sites are usually at LACFD or LASO stations, but I'm sure they can be found on LAFD, LAPD and CHP stations.

It would be nice if the counties of Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego and the CHP participated in deploying in their respective areas.

[jjennings2510]

I've been seeing cranes and workers at various towers around my city in Tennessee. I'm not sure if they are AT&T towers or not. But do you think it has something to do with the buildout of Firstnet? I know they said they would add to existing towers and then build new towers later where needed

[caddypower]

It should start going full steam before long. This snippet from an article makes it sound like most states may look to opt out. "They believe a majority of states looking to opt out". I know rivada is probably trying to provide alternatives to as many states as possible.

Also looks like there may not be a lot of faith put into the firstnet organization.

[curiouscustomer]

LA County pretty much did an facto opt out, instead of waiting for FCC to figure out who to award the license.
LA-RICS already has an operational Public Safety network running on B14 LTE and UHF T-Band (470 – 512 MHz) developed by Motorola.
They tested PTT over LTE and able to communicate with other LMRs. Eventually, LA County will have to leave the T-Band and go for an all LTE solution. The cell sites are usually at LACFD or LASO stations, but I'm sure they can be found on LAFD, LAPD and CHP stations.

It would be nice if the counties of Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego and the CHP participated in deploying in their respective areas.

I wouldn't doubt SoCal would opt out. It seems usually either they do something in the Bay Area/NorCal and doesn't happen in SoCal or vice versa.

[i0wnj00]

I wouldn't doubt SoCal would opt out. It seems usually either they do something in the Bay Area/NorCal and doesn't happen in SoCal or vice versa.

Not likely, these counties don't tend to be ambitious or have appetites like LA County for large scale public works projects..

[curiouscustomer]

Not likely, these counties don't tend to be ambitious or have appetites like LA County for large scale public works projects..

That's true. I don't blame them. LA county has other decent sized cities in it. While the others have only a couple

[WeatherPilot]

This is a product for police and fire that would most definitely benefit from FirstNet. It's a rugged live video device and platform to transmit to command on scene or back to the E911 center. http://firecam.com/pages.php?pageid=6

[Thunderknight]

Virginia, Wyoming, Arkansas and Kentucky have all early opt'ed in this week.

[10mm]

Well, if AT&T doesn't plan on densifying their network in underserved and no service areas, what's the point ? Emergencies and catastrophes happen in rural and remote areas as well. To overlay their current network with B14 is really kinda pointless.

[pbvan]

Well, if AT&T doesn't plan on densifying their network in underserved and no service areas, what's the point ? Emergencies and catastrophes happen in rural and remote areas as well. To overlay their current network with B14 is really kinda pointless.

This is a question the 5,093 occupied households in our rural central VA county has been asking. We have many, many areas that aren't serviced by any providers. The county has one tower that Att, and we only have B17,and Verizon share on the main state hway. T-mobile and sprint don't exist here. Parts of our county back up to the Blue Ridge mountains and Shenandoah National Park yet no cell service exist there.

Will Att want to invest in building towers where they are desperately needed by both residents and emergency personnel?

[pbvan]

This from WTOP July 11

WASHINGTON — The problem became apparent on Sept. 11, 2001 — first responders from different jurisdictions have a hard time communicating with each other.

Virginia will be the first state in the country to use the new FirstNet cell network that will give priority to police, fire and other emergency workers during a crisis.

Until now, first responders have used more than 10,000 networks for voice communications, according to AT&T. During emergencies, first responders have competed with consumers trying to access the cellular network.

With FirstNet, first responder subscribers will have special SIM cards in their cellphones, which will put them at the head of the line in connecting and staying connected.

Additionally, the system will provide interoperability that has been missing, enabling the agencies to share video, data and secure voice calls.

According to a news release, FirstNet and AT&T will build, operate and maintain the network for Virginia’s public safety agencies at no cost to the state for the next 25 years,

Since 2013, FirstNet met with Virginia and public safety officials more than 90 times to consider and integrate needs ranging from maritime coverage to better communications in rural areas.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe will hold a ceremonial letter signing Tuesday afternoon at AT&T’s FirstNet headquarters, in Reston.

Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.

[balleron24z]

This is a question the 5,093 occupied households in our rural central VA county has been asking. We have many, many areas that aren't serviced by any providers. The county has one tower that Att, and we only have B17,and Verizon share on the main state hway. T-mobile and sprint don't exist here. Parts of our county back up to the Blue Ridge mountains and Shenandoah National Park yet no cell service exist there.

Will Att want to invest in building towers where they are desperately needed by both residents and emergency personnel?

So, let me throw my 2 cents in to this, since I was a SW Virginia resident up until June of this year.

In all reality, Virginia may have gaps in coverage with all carriers (some more than others), but with the way VA is laid out, I don't think the build-out will be too difficult. The roughest spot to build-out in would be the Appalachian Mountains, and I've seen pretty decent coverage compared to Verizon, other than CDMA travelling a smidge bit further.

I could see AT&T using actual towers to cover areas of mountainous terrain, since those would require higher elevation, and possibly deploying something smaller (small cells, maybe?) along major roadways that aren't already covered. AT&T/FirstNet have to think about where ~90% of emergencies are likely to happen, and I could see roadways being covered by something easier to deploy in more remote areas (as far as I know, small cells don't cost as much and aren't as difficult to approve, but what do I know), and towers being used to complement the coverage, as well as cover valleys and mountains.

I don't know, that's just a hypothesis, and I'm sure there's a way better solution than this, but I feel the cost would be less for building out in areas that aren't served. Since Indianapolis has their "5G Evolution" (such a stupid name for marketing) rolled out for AT&T, and that included small cells with C-RAN, it makes me wonder if something like that would work for areas that can't be serviced by a cell tower.

I'd like to hear what other think AT&T will do.

[pbvan]

Thanks for your observations. As long as you stay on the main hways att service is ok. I'm 12 miles from 29 and my signal hovers around -113 and -121.

Att has most of their towers located within a stones throw of 29 from D.C. down into C'ville. Past there and towards Lynchburg, nadda. Rather sad. Going east on 64 towards 95 their coverage is great. Going west, again nadda. Going west from 29 on 33 over the mountain, there is limited spotty service until you get to Elkton and Harrisonburg.

By the way, enjoy your Florida winter without snow.

[justinkk2005]

Well, if AT&T doesn't plan on densifying their network in underserved and no service areas, what's the point ? Emergencies and catastrophes happen in rural and remote areas as well. To overlay their current network with B14 is really kinda pointless.

I live in eastern Kentucky and AT&T has 0 700 MHz here, only 5 x 5 of 850 mhz. T-Mobile, Appalachian Wireless, and Verizon own the 700 here. I'm hoping this helps AT&T in our area with spectrum. AT&T is way more dense than T-Mobile and is the only real competitor to the local carrier.