Good education and training, meticulous equipment management and as much advanced planning as is practical are critical for public-safety agencies to effectively serve their communities during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, said fire officials whose agencies have been on the frontlines of the battle against the virus.

The FCC granted special temporary authority (STA) to AT&T to use additional spectrum to serve Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) during the coronavirus pandemic. The commission granted AT&T access to the Advanced Wireless Service (AWS)-4 spectrum, licensed to Dish, for 60 days to expand its network capacity to meet expected increases in network traffic as a result of more Americans on the islands working from home, social distancing and sheltering in place.

AT&T outlined initiatives to help First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) subscribers respond during the COVID-19 pandemic. The carrier is adding coverage and devices where needed, and FirstNet apps are helping agencies better address response to the national emergency.

The FCC pushed back the start of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) Auction 106 until July 23 and postponed indefinitely Auction 106 given the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Project 25 Technology Interest Group (PTIG) highlighted accomplishments and work in progress for 2020 from the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) TR-8 committee. New work includes addressing interference with 700/800 MHz cellular systems and security features, among others.

American Petroleum Institute (API) members called out Anterix for not providing enough information on how it plans to remedy interference concerns in the 900 MHz band and said refineries can’t give up critical spectrum until the issues are addressed.

As the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in the United States and other countries globally, mission-critical communications organizations are changing how they work to address the resulting COVID-19 disease.

Nordic Telecom, a Czech telecom operator, announced its membership in TCCA. The carrier, with the support of 450 Alliance, also published a request for proposals (RFP) for the supply of rugged LTE band 87 hand terminals optimized for 3GPP mission-critical communications use.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and other public-safety and related industry organizations wrote to congressional leaders urging action to repeal the T-Band auction mandate on the nation’s largest municipalities as part of any coronavirus emergency stimulus spending package.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provided emergency communications restoration support to critical communications infrastructure facilities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.