The Texas A&M Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center (ITEC) run by Director Walt Magnussen provides critical information to the industry around important issues such as NG911, and the underlying network required to enable it. URGENT COMMUNICATIONS editor Donny Jackson recently sat down with Walt for this interview (https://urgentcomm.com/2022/03/11/itec-walt-magnussen-highlights-organizations-research-initiatives/) that was to be the source for our story, but due to a tech failure on OUR side, we are just providing a link to the interview.

AT&T was contracted by the FirstNet Authority to build the nationwide public-safety broadband network and is expected to complete its initial deployment this year.

This massive effort has initially been focused on expanding FirstNet coverage in outdoor areas, but public-safety representatives repeatedly have cited the need for coverage inside buildings, where many emergencies happen.

Is Russia just flexing its muscle when it says it will 'crash the ISS into Earth' if economic sanctions are imposed? Or is this just political bolstering to see how fr it can go to scare civilian satellite operators into putting pressure on the US over the Ukrainian conflict? In any case, this just may be the first conflict to include some of the components of our global communication ability or even cause a partial failure.

Grounds for war? What do YOU think?

In a dramatic global move, food giant Mondelez has stated that it will drop all of its PBXs across all of its locations worldwide and deploy the Teams environment with business partner Orange. As part of this move, Mondelez will utilize the Orange SIP network, except in Russia and China where they will use local PSTN gateways due to regulatory restrictions.

Telus announced the successful roll-out of the first phase of their migration initiative to Next-Generation 9-1-1 services in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.

The company has noted that Canada was the very first country in the world to begin the rollout of an NG9-1-1 Emergency Services IP Network, called an ESINet on a national level.

Telecom.com’s Andrew wooden reported that Laurent Leboucher, SVP of European carrier Orange Innovation, revealed plans to shut off their legacy networks and the deal with Ericsson and Nokia to build out its 5G core.

Nokia’s CTO for Europe - Azfar Aslam, recently explained Nokia’s vision of the future at the Mobile World Congress. That vision included human augmentation and new technologies that won’t be based on smartphones. He said he believes that the smartphone won’t be central to brand new technologies like the metaverse in the future, and we might all benefit from some ‘wet wear’ memory upgrades to our puny human brains before long.

Broadband cable provider Cable One has unveiled its plan to ditch its 100 Mbps service plan at the end of Q1 and then make a new 200 Mbps tier its new entry-level offering. The provider cites the strong demand for higher-speed services from its current and potential customer base and is gambling on larger pipes enticing customers away from competitors.

Urgent Communications Editor, Donny Jackson reported last week, NG911 funding has always been problematic. Migration will require an enormous sum of capital that must come from somewhere. Current estimates call for between $9B and $15B to fund the migration of the 6000 PSAP / ECCs in existence today from their legacy environment to a modern one that is digital and IP-based, and most importantly capable of transporting modern communications and modalities. "Here she comes to save the day!" FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has an idea to do just that however, Congress must reauthorize the agency in September, and allow it to continue to hold spectrum auctions for airwaves. Revenues from those auctions would then be earmarked to fund the construction and interconnectivity of 1st responders to the NG911 network; getting away from "curly cords and wall jacks", referring to the legacy analog networks in use today for E911.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the March Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 16, 2022.

Details at http://fcc.gov/openmeeting