Recently, there has been some debate on the meaning and definition of “public safety grade.” The recent hurricanes underscore the need for clarity on what it means and what public safety needs with regard to reliable data. A National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) document published in 2014 provided a definition that the overall system design enables system and service to achieve 99.999 percent availability.

InterTalk Critical Information Systems announced a new partnership with EPI Technologies Inc., through which EPI will help drive InterTalk's growth in the Midwest. EPI will introduce InterTalk's products to new customers, dealers and resellers in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Bittium lowered its financial guidance for 2017 because of a delay in the first phase of product deliveries for the Mexican Mexsat satellite phone system, which will be mainly executed in 2018 because of Mexican governmental customers. Bittium originally expected those product deliveries to be executed during the second half of 2017.

Lauttamus Communications & Security purchased Interstate Communications and Electronics. Interstate Communications & Electronics is located in Beaver, Pennsylvania and has been in business since 1975, providing two-way radio sales, installation and repair services.

Nokia hired Chris Johnson from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to lead the push into vertical industries. Company veteran Mike Calabrese will oversee the webscale and large enterprise customer segments.

The FCC granted an experimental license for Project Loon, led by Google's parent company Alphabet, to help provide emergency cellular service in Puerto Rico.

The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) plenary meetings in Sapporo, Japan, 11 – 14 September addressed standards in several areas relevant to public-safety Long Term Evolution (LTE). The 3GPP plenary meetings consisted of three separate plenary group meetings.

Iowa Communications Network (ICN) will partner with Iowa Homeland Security & Emergency Management (HSEMD) to provide a private and secure network for 9-1-1 wireline calls. ICN will provide infrastructure and services for merging the existing wireline carrier network, consisting of all the state’s wireline service providers, onto HSEMD’s next-generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) IP network.

The FCC granted a request filed by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) for a temporary waiver to permit amateur data transmissions at a higher symbol rate than is permitted by the commission’s rules to facilitate hurricane relief.

Two Vermont citizens filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Commerce pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. The DOC oversees the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

3G Americas, a wireless trade association promoting 3G GSM-based technology, noted its use for public safety applications. The group Wednesday hosted a mobile broadband wireless technology briefing with demonstrations focused on public safety for representatives of the FCC, NTIA, departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State; ITA; USTR; APCO; NENA;