Verizon can Compete Effectively Against FirstNet for Public-Safety Users

[ipfd320]

This Article was Posted in Verizon can compete effectively against FirstNet for public-safety users, company exec says – Urgent Comms
on January 9th--Looks Like The Big V wants to Pull the Rug Out from AT&T

Here is a Few Lines of the Article

Verizon can compete effectively against FirstNet for public-safety users, company exec says

• Written byDonny Jackson
• 9th January 2019

• Verizon is positioned well to compete with AT&T FirstNet in the public-safety-broadband marketplace and to begin offering 5G services in the U.S. in 2019 and 2020, according to Ronan Dunne, Verizon executive vice president and president of Verizon Wireless.

“We have the wherewithal to compete with FirstNet today,” Dunne said yesterday during the Citi 2019 TMT Global West Conference in Las Vegas. “FirstNet doesn’t even have the wherewithal to compete with FirstNet today—they haven’t built out many of the [cell sites associated with FirstNet]. We have over a 400,000-square-mile advantage over our nearest competitor. So, if you’re a first responder looking for coverage wherever [the first responder needs] it, I’m already delivering that.

“We have the capabilities within our network to give them the dedicated private network, to give them the interoperability—all of the tools that first responders need. So, specifically to first responders, I feel very confident about our ability to … continue to meet the reputation that we’ve built with those [first responders].”


The Complete Article is Here--> Verizon can compete effectively against FirstNet for public-safety users, company exec says – Urgent Comms

 

[mmckenna]

They've been saying this for a while.
And I'm betting they do have better coverage right now.
There's nothing magical about the FirstNet LTE service, yet, other than some minor differences regarding power levels, etc.

There was talk about FirstNet and Verizon having a link between the LTE cores, but so far that agreement hasn't been worked out. Last I heard AT&T didn't want to. I guess they want to keep all FirstNet customers on FirstNet.

Ideally it would be nice if either carrier could be used and have it be transparent, other than the Band 14 part.

It's a shame big business and politics will keep this from likely happening.

 

[speedway_navigator]

A friend of mine was a safety officer on a national incident management team for major forest fires. AT+T had the contract with the feds to provide phones in the equipment cache but most of the time they didn't have coverage at the fire camp, so team members used their own Verizon phones. The contract was low bid, not coverage related.

It's interesting to hear the sales pitch about the '20 MHz bandwidth' of band 14. I suppose AT+T's marketing group would call a 2 lane road with wide shoulders a 4 lane highway.

 

[MTS2000des]

I am no shill for AT&T, but at the end of the day. AT&T won the FirstNET contract and Verizon, T-Mobile/Sprint can claim they "compete" all they want, but it still isn't FirstNET, as the FirstNET authority manages the FirstNET core and the AT&T contract.

Personally, I feel FirstNET should have been an independent core shared by all LTE providers who wanted to buy-in, and managed by the Feds, but it didn't go down that way. Other carriers should stop trying to mislead users into believing they are selling the same product because they legally cannot. FirstNET is FirstNET and contractually built and operated by AT&T. The other carriers chose not to bid.

 

[mmckenna]

I am no shill for AT&T, but at the end of the day. AT&T won the FirstNET contract and Verizon, T-Mobile/Sprint can claim they "compete" all they want, but it still isn't FirstNET, as the FirstNET authority manages the FirstNET core and the AT&T contract.

Personally, I feel FirstNET should have been an independent core shared by all LTE providers who wanted to buy-in, and managed by the Feds, but it didn't go down that way. Other carriers should stop trying to mislead users into believing they are selling the same product because they legally cannot. FirstNET is FirstNET and contractually built and operated by AT&T. The other carriers chose not to bid.

I agree. They all had the opportunity to bid on the project.

But that is what consumer cellular companies do best, talk about how much better they are than the others.

 

[ipfd320]

There is Another Thread on First-Net Looking for Additional Industry Partners

https://forums.radioreference.com/t...-seeking-additional-industry-partners.382513/

 

[FPratt]

I am no shill for AT&T, but at the end of the day. AT&T won the FirstNET contract and Verizon, T-Mobile/Sprint can claim they "compete" all they want, but it still isn't FirstNET, as the FirstNET authority manages the FirstNET core and the AT&T contract.

Personally, I feel FirstNET should have been an independent core shared by all LTE providers who wanted to buy-in, and managed by the Feds, but it didn't go down that way. Other carriers should stop trying to mislead users into believing they are selling the same product because they legally cannot. FirstNET is FirstNET and contractually built and operated by AT&T. The other carriers chose not to bid.

I

I absolutely agree with you regarding CORE ownership and management, I foresee the beginnings of a monopoly being planted and hopefully not requiring the litigation of antitrust lawsuits ( Bell System breakup) decelerating the technology to end users.

 

[ipfd320]

As for the O/Post there has been an Influx of TV Commercials Involving 1st Responders--this is Telling Me Verizon is Going on the Heavy Push Soon to Sway Over the Responder Community to Their Network

What Do You Think--Does Verizon have a Shot at This of Will it be a Hostile AT&T Knock-Out Fight

 

[mmckenna]

I

I absolutely agree with you regarding CORE ownership and management, I foresee the beginnings of a monopoly being planted and hopefully not requiring the litigation of antitrust lawsuits ( Bell System breakup) decelerating the technology to end users.

The FirstNet contract is for 25 years, so there's an end if it does go that way.
The US Government running an LTE core probably wouldn't have worked out too well. The government usually fails when trying to do things like this.
Hiring an equipment vendor to run an LTE system would likely have ended up with something that started verging towards proprietary.

At one point the US Government running the LTE core was considered, but even they knew it wasn't going to work.

While people love to hate their cellular carriers (it's a national pastime), having a knowledgeable operator run it for the government was probably a good move. A 25 year contract was probably questionable, but it's a big investment and anything shorter might have been problematic.
Verizon had the opportunity to bid on it, and didn't. Any number of companies could have combined forces and bid on the project, some did, some didn't.

FirstNet is one of many tools first responders have access to. Even FirstNet is telling users not to dump their LMR systems. Many of the LTE modems out there will support more than one SIM card, so there is an option to have something -other- than FirstNet available.

At any point, agencies can walk way from FirstNet. There is no requirement that any agency joins. Kind of hard to make it a monopoly when there are other options.

 

[mmckenna]

What Do You Think--Does Verizon have a Shot at This of Will it be a Hostile AT&T Knock-Out Fight

Verizon could give FirstNet a run for its money. They can provide all the services. Once the packets hit the IP network, anything is possible. What they won't get is backing of the US Government. That may not be worth much, though.
FirstNet has some nice features, but again, nothing Verizon couldn't match.

As I said above, there is NO requirement that any agency use FirstNet, it's voluntary.

So far, Verizon has been matching FirstNet plans, so there is not a cost savings. It'll be interesting to see if eventually Verizon has to expand coverage to keep up.

I would hope that eventually someone sees the issues with this and forces FirstNet and Verizon to link cores. It's been discussed….

 

[Critt313]

This Article was Posted in Verizon can compete effectively against FirstNet for public-safety users, company exec says – Urgent Comms
on January 9th--Looks Like The Big V wants to Pull the Rug Out from AT&T

Here is a Few Lines of the Article

Verizon can compete effectively against FirstNet for public-safety users, company exec says

• Written byDonny Jackson
• 9th January 2019

• Verizon is positioned well to compete with AT&T FirstNet in the public-safety-broadband marketplace and to begin offering 5G services in the U.S. in 2019 and 2020, according to Ronan Dunne, Verizon executive vice president and president of Verizon Wireless.

“We have the wherewithal to compete with FirstNet today,” Dunne said yesterday during the Citi 2019 TMT Global West Conference in Las Vegas. “FirstNet doesn’t even have the wherewithal to compete with FirstNet today—they haven’t built out many of the [cell sites associated with FirstNet]. We have over a 400,000-square-mile advantage over our nearest competitor. So, if you’re a first responder looking for coverage wherever [the first responder needs] it, I’m already delivering that.

“We have the capabilities within our network to give them the dedicated private network, to give them the interoperability—all of the tools that first responders need. So, specifically to first responders, I feel very confident about our ability to … continue to meet the reputation that we’ve built with those [first responders].”


The Complete Article is Here--> Verizon can compete effectively against FirstNet for public-safety users, company exec says – Urgent Comms

So has any Verizon users been able to successfully add the first responder features to their account? Particularly the Mobile Broadband Priority and the Wireless Priority Service. I've gotten the WPS added successfully but Verizon can not figure out how to add MBP, it's like they are clueless about this whole first responder setup and features even though their website advertises all the ways they are keeping their responders connected.

 

[mmckenna]

Are you working with an account manager or one of the random guys at the store/800 number?
Ideally your agency should have an account manager that is trained on how to do this sort of stuff.

 

[Critt313]

Are you working with an account manager or one of the random guys at the store/800 number?
Ideally your agency should have an account manager that is trained on how to do this sort of stuff.

I have spoken with both customer service departments. Both the regular one when you dial *611/800-922-0204 as well as the government side which supposedly works directly with the department of homeland security phone number 877-262-2950. They were able to add the Mobile Broadband Priority to my mifi device but seem to think it can't be added to my smart phone in addition to the Wireless Priority Service. It's frustrating but i don't have enough confidence in Firstnet just yet to make the switch.

 

[Danny37]

Verizon is definitely pushing public safety ads hard, I thought it was odd until I read this thread. I watch the majority of my TV programs on Hulu and the same Verizon ad plays over and over.

 

[Danny37]

Oh yeah, if you work in public safety. Atleast in NYC that I know of, T-Mobile offers a discount on personal phone service for PS servants.

 

[sfd119]

I've got WPS on my personal cell but had to go through the County EM director to make that happen.

 

[Critt313]

After several back and fourth emails to and from Verizon public safety department, and also after filing a complaint to the FCC, I have been informed in writing that Wireless Priority Service provides you with Priority Voice, and Verizon further provides Priority Data to those setup with WPS. However, I haven't noticed any changes whatsoever during times of network congestion which is pretty much all the time in the college town i live in. I recently performed a speed test on my phone with the priority features while my buddy also performed a speed test (no priority features on his account) and his speed tests were faster than mine. Keep in mind that Verizon had told me they provide "Always on" priority but obviously that isn't true. So they have either lied, or don't know what they're talking about. I've also performed some speed tests while on shift comparing my Verizon phone with the priority features to our company First Net phones. First Net is about 20mbps faster.....but their coverage isn't as great. I am very disappointed with Verizon and don't know what to believe. Has anyone else with WPS or MBP on Verizon noticed any improvements during times of network congestion? Just curious if I'm the only one with no improvements or not. Also, I will gladly copy and paste the email from Verizon if anyone would like to read it.

 

[mmckenna]

Priority and speed are two different things.
There are a lot of variables that can impact network speed that will not be fixed by "always on priority", most of them having to do with the RF side.
To properly test network priority, you'd need the available bandwidth from a specific cell site to be fully, or nearly fully saturated. It would be difficult to determine when that was happening. Network speeds would not be a good indicator of congestion.

 

[Bob1955]

This Article was Posted in Verizon can compete effectively against FirstNet for public-safety users, company exec says – Urgent Comms
on January 9th--Looks Like The Big V wants to Pull the Rug Out from AT&T

Here is a Few Lines of the Article

Verizon can compete effectively against FirstNet for public-safety users, company exec says

• Written byDonny Jackson
• 9th January 2019

• Verizon is positioned well to compete with AT&T FirstNet in the public-safety-broadband marketplace and to begin offering 5G services in the U.S. in 2019 and 2020, according to Ronan Dunne, Verizon executive vice president and president of Verizon Wireless.

“We have the wherewithal to compete with FirstNet today,” Dunne said yesterday during the Citi 2019 TMT Global West Conference in Las Vegas. “FirstNet doesn’t even have the wherewithal to compete with FirstNet today—they haven’t built out many of the [cell sites associated with FirstNet]. We have over a 400,000-square-mile advantage over our nearest competitor. So, if you’re a first responder looking for coverage wherever [the first responder needs] it, I’m already delivering that.

“We have the capabilities within our network to give them the dedicated private network, to give them the interoperability—all of the tools that first responders need. So, specifically to first responders, I feel very confident about our ability to … continue to meet the reputation that we’ve built with those [first responders].”


The Complete Article is Here--> Verizon can compete effectively against FirstNet for public-safety users, company exec says – Urgent Comms

I'm on FIRSTNET, just joined last week. It has MUCH better cell phone coverage then AT&T Prepaid and Verizon Wireless has always had the WORST customer service and they lost more subscribers then any other carriers in the last 3 years. FYI

 

[Critt313]

Priority and speed are two different things.
There are a lot of variables that can impact network speed that will not be fixed by "always on priority", most of them having to do with the RF side.
To properly test network priority, you'd need the available bandwidth from a specific cell site to be fully, or nearly fully saturated. It would be difficult to determine when that was happening. Network speeds would not be a good indicator of congestion.

But during the day and into late evening, the network is almost fully saturated. After about 11pm, the speeds start gradually speeding up, I'm assuming because people are going to bed and therefore not on their phone using data. In the middle of the night, speeds are excellent, and outside of the city i live in the speeds are also excellent, i just live in an area where the network is pretty much constantly saturated during the day and evening. I guess what I'm wondering now is, at what point does the priority start benefitting me? When my download and upload speeds are both lower than 1mbps, that speed isn't doing me much good when i'm needing to utilize data in a timely manner on my device.