Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, chair of the Assembly Committee on Communications and Conveyance, and Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management, led the multi-committee panel.
“Four of my six counties were on fire, and the communications issues are paramount,” said Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-4th. “I’m really interested in finding out where we are with FirstNet. This was a project that was supposed to be (finished) in 2020, and I don’t know if that’s going to make that date.”
FirstNet is the federally mandated first-responder network that reserves a specific bandwidth for first responders and puts all first-responder communications at the front of the line if a cell or radio tower is overloaded. This priority and pre-emption is meant to make communications more reliable among all first-responder groups, from dispatch services to responders onsite, and improve situational awareness in an emergency.
California has entered a 25-year contract with AT&T to provide the FirstNet system, according to First Responder Network Authority representative Jeanette Kennedy. The contract includes hardware to support the system and financial penalties for AT&T if any part of the system does not meet standards.
AT&T may incorporate the work Los Angeles has done with the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communication System (LA-RICS) into its California system.
One panel, which included the deputy director in the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, Mitch Medigovich, also clarified the differences between FirstNet and Next-Generation 911.
“The technologies are different but integrated,” said Walter "Budge" Currier, Cal OES Emergency Communications branch manager.
Next-Gen 911 is focused on getting the information from people who need help to first responders, Currier continued. This information could be video, text, photographs or voice.
“The next piece of the puzzle would be the communication that happens between that answering point and those that are actually responding,” Currier said.
Even with the AT&T contract, the system will still face challenges.
They will include:
- Site hardening — Radio and cell towers have to withstand conditions including fires, floods and other emergency scenarios
- Geography — California has a lot of land, much of which is rural and topographically challenging
- Being prepared — Launching resources to areas that are at risk is necessary, but there isn’t always enough data to make those decisions
- 911 routing — Calls do not always end up at the correct call center
- Reverse 911 — Warning systems work through geographic information, which does not always reach cellphones or may reach phones not involved in the risk area
What has worked in the past:
- CB Radio
- Ham Radio
- Land Mobile Radio
- Wi-Fi on board trucks
- Placing resources at high-risk areas
- Placing repeaters
- Early warning systems via text message
- LA-RICS
