Indiana becomes another Firstnet victim

Seems like all the money they spent on their current systems was a waste then. At least when he is no longer governor he will have a cushy VP position at AT & T.

It was explained to me nearly 3 years ago by a person who should know what he was talking about that the decision to opt in to FirstNet was made so that it could be implemented here on IN's terms, not the Feds. The latter would have happened if IN had balked. So this is old news, and happened under Daniels...I'm not sure why Holcomb is crowing about it.

As far as Project Hoosier Safe-T is concerned...I would be extremely surprised to see it go away anytime in the foreseeable future. It works extremely well for voice comms. And as mentioned above, there is far too much money invested in it for it to be thrown out.

My opinion is that FirstNet will be data-only here and will very likely simply replace the air cards that many agencies use with their MDT's. It may go a bit farther than that but having it used routinely for voice would surprise me.

It would also surprise me to see it up and working in the next 15 years...

What is MDT

Mobile Data Terminal

Agreed. Looks like cellular data and maybe a wireless telecom network that won't get swamped like commercial cellular networks do when a major disaster occurs.

DJ11DLN said:

So this is old news, and happened under Daniels...I'm not sure why Holcomb is crowing about it.

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While non-elected administrative folks may have made the decision to opt in to FirstNet some time ago, the FirstNet folks have been really selling FirstNet to the political types in each state looking for official state declarations that the state was going to opt in.

By saying that they have all these governors promising to opt in, FirstNet can go back to Congress and the FCC and say "look, we have all these states supporting our cockamamie plan to spend billions of federal dollars on a nationwide data system on top of our existing nationwide data system".

It's all about the optics.

Am I being cynical?

W9BU said:

While non-elected administrative folks may have made the decision to opt in to FirstNet some time ago, the FirstNet folks have been really selling FirstNet to the political types in each state looking for official state declarations that the state was going to opt in.

By saying that they have all these governors promising to opt in, FirstNet can go back to Congress and the FCC and say "look, we have all these states supporting our cockamamie plan to spend billions of federal dollars on a nationwide data system on top of our existing nationwide data system".

It's all about the optics.

Am I being cynical?

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No, you're simply right!

GTO_04

Victim of what? From what I see FirstNet is a win-win. It’s already caused more competition with Verizon coming out with a similar offering for Government subscribers. There’s no LMR replacement piece in FirstNet this is solely about providing a data network that is resilient and capable for the usage that public safety demands.


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You could say that the taxpayers are the victims. We are the ones paying for it.

W9BU said:

Am I being cynical?

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Maybe so but I consider that a healthy attitude these days, especially where government i.e. taxpayer-funded projects are concerned. I certainly try to keep a realistic outlook about such things...but then I'm routinely accused of being one of those "glass half full" types.

Maybe so, but I find far less disappointments in life when my expectations are low...especially my expectations of our governments, state, local, and federal.

That cynical enough?:twisted:

http://www.fiercewireless.com/wirel...rstnet-dedicated-network-for-first-responders

Taxpayers aren’t paying for this, which is directly in relation to FirstNet. Additionally, on the local level, governments can expect pricing to be extremely competitive with regards to amazing increases in service. Imagine how hard it is to get any data throughput during an IU or Notre Dame football game. Now with FirstNet responders can see priority over regular users on the system when they need to have the data pushed out most. So much police and EMS work is done on mobile computers now. Much more than anyone here probably realizes.


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https://fcw.com/articles/2017/03/30/att-firstnet-win.aspx

I'll pull out a quote: "Over the first five years, FirstNet will pay AT&T $6.5 billion to build out the network."

bamx2 said:

Verizon to take on AT&T with dedicated network for first responders | FierceWireless

Taxpayers aren’t paying for this, which is directly in relation to FirstNet. Additionally, on the local level, governments can expect pricing to be extremely competitive with regards to amazing increases in service. Imagine how hard it is to get any data throughput during an IU or Notre Dame football game. Now with FirstNet responders can see priority over regular users on the system when they need to have the data pushed out most. So much police and EMS work is done on mobile computers now. Much more than anyone here probably realizes.


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If not taxpayers, then who? Verizon, AT&T, or whatever carrier isn't going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts. These companies are in business to turn a profit and they are only doing this because they see a big payday down the road, with an ongoing revenue stream. Who will generate this revenue stream? Well, who is going to use FirstNet and/or whatever Verizon calls their alternative, or any other such Public Safety-oriented service that might be rolled out? Not John Q Public. It will be utilized by Public Safety agencies. So just ask yourself, who funds Public Safety?

All of these projects are taxpayer-funded, regardless of how the origin of the funds may be obfuscated.

It's just like when the local commissioners say that this or that road/bridge/whatever project won't cost the county but a small amount because "The Federal Government is picking up 80% of the tab." Where do you suppose did the feds get the money?:roll:

We the taxpayers ultimately pay for everything done by government, at whatever level.

And I am aware of how much PS business is transacted over MDT, even though my agency doesn't have them. But when I hear a LEO call in for a tag or license to be run, it usually isn't because of bandwidth shortage, the reason given is almost always because (a.) the MDT is locked up and they don't want to wait for it to reboot, or (b.) because their air card isn't getting a signal. Whether the various iterations of FirstNet will solve that coverage problem or not we'll just have to wait and see...I seriously doubt that it will solve issues related to Windows getting confused or locking up due to road shock.

DJ11DLN said:

But when I hear a LEO call in for a tag or license to be run, it usually isn't because of bandwidth shortage, the reason given is almost always because (a.) the MDT is locked up and they don't want to wait for it to reboot, or (b.) because their air card isn't getting a signal.

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You left off the third reason: The LEO is in a challenging tactical situation and typing the query into the MDT and waiting for the response is slower than simply asking Dispatch on the radio.

W9BU said:

You left off the third reason: The LEO is in a challenging tactical situation and typing the query into the MDT and waiting for the response is slower than simply asking Dispatch on the radio.

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Absolutely correct, thanks for adding that! And that is certainly a situation that FirstNet will never be able to solve.

The first two are just what I hear frequently -- very frequently -- on my scanners. The "I have no signal here" is about 3:1, maybe 4:1, to the "My terminal is locked up" complaint. Some of these agencies seem to have more downtime with their MDT's than uptime.

At the end of the day, there will always be some situations where traditional 2-way radio simply cannot be replaced.

W9BU said:

You left off the third reason: The LEO is in a challenging tactical situation and typing the query into the MDT and waiting for the response is slower than simply asking Dispatch on the radio.

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Ever since Lake County went to their own P25 Phase II system, it seems I hear officers complain more about computer issues and lockups quite often. I am not really familiar with these systems.

I thought once they went to the new P25 system the computer issues would have been corrected. Is the MDT is a separate system from the radio communication system?

MDT/MDC aka laptops in the units run mainly on cellular aircards for the most part. There are ways that the radio networks could be used, but this will tie up frequencies. On TDMA systems this is not as big since you have 2 slots to use,... But on an busier system it becomes a problem. Hence FirstNet being a good idea.... But it is a pipe dream until you can guarantee true 99% 4G LTE or better coverage EVERYWHERE.... And for instance in Morgan County, I could rarely find good 3G until very recently ...