Jeff Johnson, executive director of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and former vice chair of the FirstNet Authority. Image via Urgent Communications.
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Public safety transitioning to LTE-based solutions, but PTT timetable still unclear, speakers say
Public-safety users are benefiting from the data-oriented capabilities enabled by LTE on trusted networks today and also will transition voice communications to the broadband platform, although the timetable for this change remains unclear, according to experts discussing the topic this week.
Jeff Johnson, executive director of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and former vice chair of the FirstNet Authority, said that LTE and broadband communications already dominate the public-safety data arena.
“We always end up in this conversation about when—or will, even—will LTE replace LMR, and can it, but we may want to reverse that conversation,” Johnson said during IWCE’s In-Building Forum virtual conference, which was conducted in partnership with the Safer Buildings Coalition. “It’s already replaced some components. I don’t know of anybody buying LMR-based data systems anymore, because the thirst for our applications, our data needs, are so much that you can’t possibly make that work in a rational fashion.
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