By Chris Algiere, FirstNet Federal Consultation Lead
The U.S. southern border continues to be one of the largest challenges for public safety operations at all levels of government. The dynamic mission space, coupled with the remote landscape and environmental factors, challenges technology delivery of just about any sort.
As part of our consultation and planning for the nationwide public safety broadband network, FirstNet is holding a federal forum focused on operations along the southwest border of the United States and has plans for future forums in other regions of the U.S. The upcoming southwest border forum is part of our plan to take consultation with federal departments and agencies beyond the headquarters and engage management, practitioners, and other staff members across the United States.
The Forum will be held in Phoenix, Arizona August 30th and 31st at the Bureau of Land Management’s National Training Center. This meeting will provide an opportunity for federal stakeholders in and around the southwest border region to engage with FirstNet through a series of presentations and breakout sessions focused on understanding the needs and challenges facing federal practitioners and what is possible with public safety broadband.
Through this meeting, we will inform federal stakeholders on the latest FirstNet developments and current efforts, expand outreach to regional stakeholders, and gain a better understanding of how to support federal border needs and the needs of their local, state, and tribal partners.
The FirstNet consultation team looks forward to having a dialogue with a cross section of agencies and disciplines to gain feedback and thoughts on the benefits of Long Term Evolution (LTE) for public safety, the current communications landscape in that region, and their operational concerns and communications challenges.
This video on the subject highlights some of the key issues facing public safety operations along the southwest border that we hope to tackle at the forum –
At the end of our discussions, we’d like participants to leave with a vision of how the FirstNet network can affect federal operations in the southwest border region and a plan for clearing any potential roadblocks to adoption by federal users. The FirstNet network represents a great opportunity to connect and support interagency cooperation and interoperability and, at the end of the day, make our communities safer and more secure.
For more information about participating in this forum, please contact us at FederalConsultation@Firstnet.gov. We look forward to having robust federal engagement in this forum and in all of our consultation activities going forward.
Click here to download Federal Border Forum (Southwest) flyer
