With the complete Digi SAFE™ 5G emergency communication solution, rest assured your officers have reliable connectivity anywhere in their territory.
There is nothing more important than ensuring that officers get to the scene fast, have reliable communication with their teams, and make it home safely every day. Ultra-fast and reliable connectivity is critical for officers to do their jobs effectively and safely. Yet today, slow loading speeds, cellular dead zones, and technological downtime are still ongoing issues for many police forces around the U.S. That’s where 5G-enabled Digi SAFE™, with support for first responder networks, comes into play. Watch this recorded webinar to learn about this purpose-built solution.
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Follow-up Webinar Q&A
Thank you again for attending our session with Telit and Digi International on establishing secure IoT for public safety in smart cities. If you have additional questions, be sure to reach out.
Moderator: Frank Borelli, Editorial Director, Officer.com
Presenters:
- Garett Doyle, State Market Manager, AT&T FirstNet
- John Matovich, Solutions Consultant, Public Sector Solutions, AT&T FirstNet
- Gregory Hill, Director of Product Management, Digi International
Is FirstNet available or accessible through airborne assets?
Garett: Thanks. Appreciate that question. It's a good one. Right now, that's a study undergoing, by the FirstNet Authority, both on a technical and policy feasibility. As you may know, we're using licensed FCC spectrum, so we have license rules we have to follow for use. That is kind of the policy side. Then we also have the technical side, which is how does it perform, and at what altitudes does it perform? We also are looking at those feasibilities as well. I'm going to go ahead and post an article that is from the firstnet.gov site, that talks a little bit more about where that case study sits, and use case, but stay tuned, and if there are specific follow-up questions on that, let us know.
How does an agency know whether or not FirstNet's available in their area?
Garett: The best thing to do is to make sure you engage with one of our folks in the field. We have folks across the United States, and all 50 states. And what I would suggest you do is go ahead and do some testing. We could also do that testing and coordination with Digi, to put a FirstNet SIM into a Digi device. As you saw, our contact information is there. Second, you can also go out to the firstnet.com website, and you can see a coverage map. I don't expect you to use that as your conclusive evidence that it's going to work. We want you to use that as a direction, to say, "Yep, it looks like it's available in my community, and I would like to do some testing."
Does the mobile VPN work with other devices connected to the router?
Greg: Yes, it does. Many situations where you have either a Toughbook or a ruggedized laptop, smart tablet, or other type of device like a phone, there's an application that runs on the mobile devices, that connects through the router, to be able to connect you end-to-end to the back-end server. So, it does work with devices connected to the router.
When is the Digi TX40 going to be available?
Greg: Yeah, we're really excited. We've got some seed customers we're working with now. We do have an early adopter program. If you're interested in that, you can reach out to Digi. But we're planning to make the formal announcement at IACP in October. We'll have some samples in our booth if you want to see them. There's a bunch of information on our website around it, so you can reach out via digi.com to see more information on the product.
Is B14 required for both FirstNet Trusted and FirstNet Capable, or only for Trusted?
Garett: Thanks for asking. So, B14 is just Band 14, the 700 megahertz spectrum set aside for the public safety broadband network. We cover 90-plus percent of the U.S. with that. But the Digi product, as well as other solutions, will work whether we have Band 14 deployed or not. All of the AT&T LTE spectrum and 5G network is available for first responder use.
Greg: Garett, can you add to that? I think the question was around FirstNet Capable versus Trusted. Our products do support Band 14. For Trusted devices, is it a AT&T requirement to have to have Band 14?
Garett: It's not a requirement. It's a recommendation, going forward. NIST is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce that does the testing on these devices, and as you look back, when Band 14 was new, we had some products that did not have that yet, and those devices still will work. But we have been partnering with folks like Digi to make sure Band 14's in current and future devices. And Band 14 has been included in most devices for the past couple of years. But if you have older products, we sure can take a look at those and see how they will work, and function.
What happens if I don't have 5G coverage, but I have a Digi 5G router?
Greg: So, all Digi routers are built with fallback capability, which means they have the existing current LTE 4G bands and technology built into them. So, there are algorithms that are automatically built into the system. As you get into rural areas, sometimes you don't have 5G coverage, or sometimes you run into capacity. In those cases, it will automatically fall back to LTE. LTE is sort of the backbone, and is expected to be around for many years. This is another reason why you want a purpose-built device. Between Digi SAFE, and the different radio algorithms, it all manages that automatically.