FirstNet in the Field : How the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network Is Impacting First Responder Operations and Supporting Innovations

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  This final report summarizes and synthesizes what we have learned from our research on the implementation of FirstNet over the past three years. This report is intended for both public safety leaders and technical audiences. • For agency leaders, the report provides an overview of what FirstNet is, including how and why it came into being, how it is being managed through a public-private partnership, and the current status of the network and its build-out. This background is important for police chiefs, fire chiefs, and other public safety executives who are trying to make informed decisions about their mobile broadband needs. • The report also contains technical details about FirstNet operations and performance that should be valuable to an agency’s information technology and emergency communications staff. PERF’s Findings Four key findings emerged from our research: 1 FIRSTNET IS PROVIDING PUBLIC SAFETY AGENCIES WITH RELIABLE, HIGH-SPEED ACCESS TO MOBILE DATA. In performance tests run during two large public demonstrations in Washington, D.C. (the March for Life on January 18, 2019, and the Women’s March the following day), and during everyday police patrols in Camden, NJ, the PERF team found that mobile devices operating on FirstNet had faster data upload and download speeds, and experienced fewer service reliability problems, than devices operating on commercial networks (including AT&T’s own commercial network). 

2 FIRSTNET PROVIDES CRITICAL SUPPORT DURING NATURAL DISASTERS AND MAJOR EVENTS. Throughout this project, PERF heard examples of how FirstNet helped public safety agencies respond to hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and other natural disasters. Often, one of the first casualties of these events is cell phone towers and other communications infrastructure, which can be damaged or destroyed. Through its nationwide deployables program, FirstNet has been able to get mobile communications assets – both land-based and airborne – to disaster locations to reestablish data and voice communications for first responders. Over the past three years, FirstNet also has supported public safety at major events, like the Super Bowl, which attract large crowds that can tax or overwhelm cellular networks. And when the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged parts of the country, FirstNet deployables were brought in to support the medical community and first responders. 3 FIRSTNET IS HELPING AGENCIES STREAMLINE OPERATIONS AND IMPROVE EFFICIENCY. FirstNet users reported being able to more easily access information in the field; complete and upload reports; transmit photographs, video and other large data files; and carry out other everyday tasks. For police agencies, these efficiencies are allowing officers and deputies to remain out in the community, available to answer calls for service and engage in prevention activities, and not have to return to a police facility to access information or file a report. For fire and EMS personnel, reliable access to mobile data is speeding up dispatching and improving situational awareness when battling fires and tracking patients from incident scenes to hospitals.    4 FIRSTNET IS ENABLING AGENCIES TO EXPERIMENT WITH NEW WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS. For example, agencies are using FirstNet to conduct video roll calls; live-stream video of fires, accidents, or disaster scenes to improve situational awareness; provide TeleHealth services to first responders who come upon persons in crisis; and even remotely dispatch 911 calls during the COVID-19 pandemic, so that social distancing and other safety protocols could be maintained in the Emergency Communications Center. These and other innovations are made possible because agencies have access to a dedicated and secure mobile broadband network. These findings are explored in greater detail throughout this report.  

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum , 2022. 60p.