Virginia
Tabitha Smithers, an emergency aviation flight nurse and Goochland County Fire and EMS volunteer paramedic, uses FirstNet to alleviate communications hurdles in a rural region of Virginia.
When disaster strikes or large crowds gather, public safety officials need a broadband network they can rely on to remain connected. FirstNet’s fleet of deployables is an important resource for emergency managers for planned and unplanned events to ensure that connection is available. First Responder Network Authority Senior Public Safety Advisor Timothy Pierce describes the deployables that are available to FirstNet subscribers and how those resources can make a difference for first responders.
FirstNet Authority Senior Public Safety Advisor Lori Stone sits down with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Statewide Interoperability Coordinator Tom Crabbs to discuss FirstNet, how first responders are exploring and adapting cutting-edge technologies, and how the FirstNet Authority is helping public safety agencies nationwide advance operations.
First responders from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland integrated FirstNet into search and rescue exercises held in Gore, VA — a remote region in the Shenandoah Valley.
As part of our Roadmap Engagements, the First Responder Network Authority’s (FirstNet Authority) Public Safety Advocacy (PSA) team was pleased to recently hold a Mission Critical Services Workshop in Fairfax County, VA.
In this episode of Public Safety First, Dave Mulholland — Administrator for the Arlington Co. (VA) Emergency Communications Center — discusses the evolution of emergency communications in the National Capital Region and shares his experiences with a FirstNet demo at the Marine Corps Marathon.
In this episode of Public Safety First, Chris Algiere, FirstNet Authority’s Director of Federal National Programs, joins us to chat about the Public Safety Entity engagement initiative and lessons learned for current FirstNet subscribers like the City of Richmond, and future FirstNet users.
FirstNet is a new nationwide broadband network dedicated to first responders. Designed with the advice of public safety professionals, FirstNet aims to give first responders 21st-century communications tools to help save lives, solve crimes, and keep communities and emergency responders safe.
Priority and preemption are a few of the crucial features FirstNet provides to first responders, especially during large planned events with thousands of participants, such as the annual International Balloon Festival in Albuquerque. In years past, first responders at the festival reported poor connectivity on commercial networks due to attendees’ high volume of voice calls, texts, and social media posts. But using FirstNet, public safety’s dedicated network, for this year’s festival, they had a dramatically different—and better—experience.
The FirstNet Authority has consulted with hundreds of thousands of first responders across the nation throughout the development of FirstNet—from the early stages of planning an approach, to the development of a Request for Proposal to build the network, to the award of the contract in March 2017.
Public safety agencies in Virginia’s capital city of Richmond were among the first in the country to subscribe to FirstNet. After testing, city leaders and public safety officials adopted FirstNet to equip first responders with advanced speed, capacity, and improved interoperability.
Captain Phil Perry of the Alexandria Fire Department talks about the central role communications plays when multiple jurisdictions respond. From the tragic crash of an Air Florida flight in 1982 to the terrorist attack on the Pentagon in 2001 to more routine events, Captain Perry says the ability to share information affects the success, safety, and speed of public safety’s response.