Illinois is joining all 50 states and U.S. territories in adopting FirstNet, a nationwide wireless broadband network boasting a near-unlimited capacity for crucial first-responder public-safety messages.
FirstNet was created in 2012, when Congress acted on the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation to form a broadband channel to facilitate public safety messages. The goal of the network, which was created in a public-private partnership with AT&T, is to exchange video, audio, text and other communications in the field.
“First-responders must have the ability to communicate with one another during an emergency,” Natalia Derevyanny, deputy director of communications and public affairs for the Cook County Department of Homeland Security, recently told the Chicago City Wire. “FirstNet will give the public safety community a dedicated network to share critical information in real time with other first responders during major incidents and planned events.”
The new network was necessary to standardize the broadcast quality of local emergency channels used by first responders across the country, which vary from district to district," according to an article in Forbes magazine. AT&T won a 25-year contract with FirstNet and will invest $40 billion in the project.
Although it’s unclear how AT&T will benefit from the contract, the Forbes article said its involvement could “open a new revenue stream” for the telecommunications giant.
“Once this system is deployed, first responders will have the ability to communicate with all the jurisdictions involved in a large-scale incident,” Derevyanny said. “Right now, first responders must rely on the same commercial data networks as consumers when sending text, images and video. FirstNet will provide a reliable network giving first responders priority access.”
Industry analyst Donny Jackson, editor of Urgent Communications magazine, wrote in an article that although states can opt-out of participation in FirstNet, it is unlikely many would do so.
It “would create a potential uncapped financial risk that no jurisdiction wants to assume in this struggling economy,” Jackson wrote in a 2014 editorial on Urgent Communications’ website.
Editor's note: The original story erroneously reported that only a handful of states had joined FirstNet.
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