Today is International Firefighters' Day (IFFD), which recognizes the men and women throughout the fire service who risk their lives each day to protect lives and property in their communities.

For Mike Worrell, becoming a first responder was personal. His brother was only 25 when he died unexpectedly of a heart ailment. The first responders who rushed to help his brother were exceptionally kind, Mike said, and he’ll never forget the way they treated him and his family. For someone interested in many different careers, that experience, ultimately, led Mike Worrell to becoming a firefighter.

During this year’s Boston marathon, the First Responder Network Authority (First Responder Authority) team and AT&T were on hand to distribute 80 FirstNet devices to fire, police and incident response teams from the cities of Boston and Brookline. Thirty of these phones were outfitted with SIM cards and connected to the dedicated FirstNet Core.

America’s first responders are on the front lines working to save lives and protect communities across the nation. During the month of May, there are a number of opportunities to recognize the hard work and life-saving sacrifices of fire service, law enforcement and emergency medical services personnel.

In the FirstNet Authority’s ongoing effort to keep you informed regarding standards development activities impacting public safety, and following our recent update on the December plenary meetings in Portugal, this blog discusses the latest developments from the 3GPP plenary meetings held in Chennai, India from March 19-23, 2018. The March quarterly meetings addressed standards in several areas relevant to the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) during three separate plenary group meetings.