Verizon announced it plans to build and operate a private network core dedicated to public safety and make priority access and pre-emption services available to public safety “when necessary and at no charge.”

Southern Co. subsidiary Southern Linc entered into a partnership with the Huntsville-Madison County’s (Alabama) 9-1-1 Dispatch Center (MadCo 9-1-1) for mission-critical Long Term Evolution (LTE) service. The service is expected to be available in Huntsville and Madison County in the second quarter of 2018.

The European Emergency Number Association (EENA) is calling out Apple for not adding advanced mobile location (AML), a technology that allows emergency services to accurately locate a caller in danger, to iPhones and other Apple devices.

Scott Edson, executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS), provides an update on the combined Project 25 (P25) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) project.

Two states with early builder networks have already decided to opt in to the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), while specific details about the future of the states’ early builder networks are still unclear.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC) finalized new documents that will allow Project 25 (P25) Phase 2 interoperability testing under the Compliance Assessment Program (CAP), and half the P25 CAP labs are now recognized by the new accreditation bodies.

When and how the transition to 6.25 kilohertz will happen is anyone’s guess, but the FCC continues to remind licensees that the transition is still in the commission’s future plans.

Standards for mission-critical features within Long Term Evolution (LTE) continue to move forward with the partial completion of Release 14 in June and the addition of work on an LMR-to-LTE interworking standard in Release 15.

Motorola Solutions announced plans to buy the North American 9-1-1 and Project 25 (P25) business of Airbus. Airbus’ TETRA business based in Europe is not part of the acquisition.

Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) said they have developed a new network protocol that simplifies the networking process and makes data transfer during emergencies more efficient.