Emergency responders have used Land Mobile Radio (LMR) networks for their mission critical communications for almost a century. Despite major leaps in communications technologies and devices, responders continue to depend on their radios for reliable, instantaneous two-way communications. Even as more responders adopt wireless broadband services, they are generally using new technologies to augment – not replace – their LMR capabilities.
The deployment of a nationwide public safety broadband network based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology provides an opportunity to deliver boundless levels of operability, interoperability, and high-speed voice, video, and data services to first responders. But talk to any first responder or communications technician and they will tell you the same thing: LMR systems will remain the primary tool for mission critical voice communications for many years to come.
Brandon Abley, who is Minnesota’s Statewide Interoperability Program Manager with the Department of Public Safety (DPS), realized the potential of emerging technologies during his tenure at the U.S. National Parks Service (NPS). Brandon, whose graduate school work was focused on spectrum management and public safety broadband, was part of a team that replaced radio systems in all 13 states in the Midwest for NPS.
When Brandon joined the Emergency Communication Networks (ECN) within DPS in 2010, he helped the state stand up the Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) –a state/local shared radio system with over 300 state-owned sites and about 80 planned locally-owned sites that is utilized by nearly every first responder in the state.
“I understood the need for broadband and that the industry was at a transition point,” Brandon tells FirstNet. But he also sees the challenges in getting everyone to buy-in to using an LTE network. “We have a certain culture in public safety and we have an established order. A lot of this is presented as very new and different…some see it as a big disruptive technology.”
Brandon works closely with the state Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to conduct “relentless” outreach about FirstNet and the benefits of the nationwide public safety broadband network. Brandon says Minnesota’s outreach and awareness campaign is a highly structured project modeled mostly after the State and Local Implementation Grant Program (SLIGP) with clearly defined deliverables. The team has often found themselves on the road for a week at a time giving presentations and meeting with people across the state non-stop to make FirstNet “the topic of discussion in public safety.”
Minnesota has had success leveraging existing partnerships and governance models that have worked for their statewide ARMER system. They have also been “thinking outside the box” to come up with new ways to extend their outreach and education about FirstNet and the broadband network. This includes online modules through their partnership with the Alexandria Technical & Community College as well as publications, white papers, and brochures customized and targeted for Minnesota. “Even though our governance is very effective in Minnesota and we have a culture of collaboration in public safety, it’s really a lot of work. You have to build and maintain relationships with thousands of people in order to really sell a product like this.”
Brandon says Minnesota was very active on understanding their broadband needs – including coverage and users – before the legislation was enacted to establish FirstNet and the broadband network. “We’ve done a lot of this outreach years ago, about the basic idea and talking about broadband and just collecting information and presenting our findings,” he says. “When the act was passed the idea of FirstNet was different, it was a change but it fit in line with the track of the studies and the preparation that we had been doing.”
Summing it up, Brandon and the team believes FirstNet is Minnesota’s “best chance at the public safety broadband network that we’ve wanted for so long.”
