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A VW bug sits inside the ruins of a burned down house and garage.

Edward Parkinson describes how he joined the Western Fire Chiefs Association and public safety officials for a site visit to the burn area of the Camp Fire in northern California. This trip was an opportunity for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) to learn about the public safety response to the fires that devastated Paradise, California—a town of 27,000 residents in the foothills East of Chico—directly from those fire chiefs and other first responders who were on the ground during the wildfire.

People sit at tables in a crowded room, working on their laptops and listening to a presenter.

The December 2018 quarterly Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) meetings in Sorrento, Italy, addressed standards in several areas relevant to mission-critical broadband in three separate plenary group meetings.

Front view of an ambulance, including its lights.

The age of FirstNet stands to deliver situational awareness and data for Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs), whether for emergency managers in rural or metro areas in the US. When police needed to search a 300-acre wooded property in rural Alabama, they used a mix of traditional police work and cutting-edge technology to try to find evidence that could provide a long-sought break in a missing persons case.

A City of Las Vegas Fire and Rescue uniformed officer speaks into a smartphone. Behind him are music festival attendees.

In 2018, the Life is Beautiful Music and Art Festival attracted 180,000 visitors from around the globe to an 18-block radius in Las Vegas, Nevada. To assist, 30 FirstNet Ready™ mobile devices were distributed to the Las Vegas Fire and Rescue team, including firefighters, EMS, and bomb squad personnel.

Brent Williams, Dr. Paul Zeeb, and Jack Rupp sit around a table which holds a laptop and a microphone.
EMTs and paramedics, like those at the Plain Township Fire Department in Ohio, are using FirstNet to share data quickly during critical and routine incidents, ensuring patients receive the best quality care available. By offering first responders quick and reliable access to send and receive data, FirstNet is affording patients an opportunity to receive rapid and specialized advanced care in potentially life threatening situations.