
AT&T gets $6.5B contract to build US-wide public safety network - jonbaer
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/03/att-gets-6-5-billion-to-build-us-wide-public-safety-network/
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imjustsaying
So basically they're building a second internet / wireless communication
network, which only the government has access to?

Well this way in case of unrest I guess they can temporarily shut down the
internet and other communication networks completely and yet still be
connected to each other.

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Aloha
This isnt that, for 6b dollars, you're unlikely to cover more than a handful
of major metros, figure its 250k for a greenfield site, 100k for a co-located
one, plus associated core network costs, for a national network you'd be
looking at more like 100b+.

Beyond that, most communications between the field and dispatch is narrowband,
not wideband, and this is unlikely to change in the near future - if you think
the police agencies are relying on public internet access now to do mission
critical dispatch, you'd be wrong.

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hbosch
The cynic inside me wants to say that this "$6.5B" is destined to inflate.

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canadian_voter
_" FirstNet will provide 20MHz of high-value, telecommunications spectrum and
success-based payments of $6.5 billion over the next five years to support the
network buildout"_

I only had to read that 4 times to figure it out. Let's call it a relatively
well-written government press release.

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TheAceOfHearts
This is probably a dumb question, but if they usually share the same network,
isn't there some way to give emergency responders priority?

I hope I'm not fear mongering, but I can't say I'm looking forward to the
potential influx of IoT devices. As I understand it, many IoT devices appear
to be highly vulnerable to hacking. Vendor lock-in and flimsy security
requirements don't sound like a good mix.

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deftnerd
Yes! the little-known 710-NCS-GETS phone number. It's the only phone number in
the 710 area code.

If you dial that number and then enter in your special 12 digit security code,
you can make an outbound call to any other number.

All the telephone switches in the US are required to treat calls to the 710
area code as priority, at the expense of dropping any existing traffic that it
needs to drop.

The end result is even overloaded exchanges can be used by first responders
with the proper security codes. "GETS is designed to provide a 90% call
completion rate when call volume is eight times normal capacity."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Emergency_Telecommu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Emergency_Telecommunications_Service)

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chiph
That's a different implementation from DoD's classic AUTOVON system, which
used phones with the "missing" four DTMF tones to assign priority. "Flash
Override" was pretty much restricted to National Command Authority (the
President and Joint Chiefs) and would allegedly clear entire trunk lines to
ensure call completion.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autovon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autovon)

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jeffwilcox
Interesting that it's the US-wide one; there are local and regional safety
systems, too, which are heavily bid up by folks including Motorola.

Here in Seattle ever few years we approve another quarter billion dollar
emergency network project. If our local cost is a quarter billion, $6.5B for a
country-wide network seems like a deal in this day and age.

(Article - [http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/eastside/levy-
passe...](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/eastside/levy-passes-to-
upgrade-emergency-radio-network/))

~~~
SigmundA
This is not typical public safety trunked radio stuff that Motorola usually
does.

This is basically a special LTE band (14 - 760mhz down, 790mhz up). Standard
LTE tech using one of the lower frequency bands for better range and
penetration but lower speed. Also the public safety modems in device will go
up to 1 watt transmit instead of just 300 milliwatts of your typical LTE
device.

Most public safety agencies in US already using cell networks heavily for
their in vehicle laptop / dispatch systems having contracts with Verizon or
ATT this will just give them a dedicated band the public isn't using so it
should stay up better even when the rest of the cell system is hammered due to
a unexpected event. Probably includes dedicated backhaul bandwidth from the
towers and static ip's for devices etc.

Interesting note you can get a legal LTE booster that goes to 1 watt transmit
to match FirstNet transmit power.

Cradlepoint already has a FirstNet modem, thier routers are used in public
safety vehicles already along with Sierra Wireless and Pepwave:
[https://cradlepoint.com/content/whats-new/band-14-module-
pub...](https://cradlepoint.com/content/whats-new/band-14-module-public-
safety-firstnet)

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azernik
The spectrum for this has been set aside for a while; it's just not used until
now.

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TheAdamAndChe
I wonder how AT&T lobbied over the other companies to win the contract.

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cmdrfred
I would assume they were the lowest bidder.

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robertcope
Or paid the right people the most in campaign contributions.

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azernik
There's a reason procurement decisions like this are delegated to career civil
servants - they have much fewer valid excuses to be socializing with vendors.

Corruption in this context usually instead takes the form of job offers post-
retirement; and that's usually most common in military procurement, where
early retirement from public service is the norm.

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syshum
>There's a reason procurement decisions like this are delegated to career
civil servants - they have much fewer valid excuses to be socializing with
vendors.

This is simply false. Regular Capture and the revolving door are rampant at
telecommunications companies

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amelius
How much more would it cost extra to set out a duplicate network?

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samfisher83
6.5 bil to cover the entire nation sounds low. I think the price will end up
being more. I wonder who will responsible for overages.

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SigmundA
Pretty sure just using existing ATT cell network with new dedicated LTE band
and prioritization on backhaul to internet.

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coding123
That's what I'm thinking too. They are probably going to feature a couple of
notable big-press dig hole events and show some equipment, but in the end this
is a set of code changes and specialized devices that will emit a new code
that gets special priority. Total cost to AT&T: a few million. We all paid
taxes for that..

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jsz0
> Total cost to AT&T: a few million

More like a few billion. A few million dollars is nothing in telecom. They've
almost certainly already spent at least that much just to bid on the project.
The upgrades will include things like structural re-enforcement of towers,
increased battery / generator capacity, security enhancements, etc.

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jagger27
What's the theoretical max throughput of 20MHz of spectrum?

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asafira
Depends on the power they push signal through vs. the noise:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon%E2%80%93Hartley_theore...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon%E2%80%93Hartley_theorem)

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tracker1
Not to mention effects of distance...

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bjshepard
The US is a genocidal state and has been one since it began. Any technologists
working for the state are complicit in genocide.

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jenkstom
As an EMT who may some day use this, I respectfully disagree. This network is
for first responders, not some arm of the military. This sort of system will
be used to respond to terrorist attacks, not support them. It will literally
be used to save lives.

