A new white paper from TCCA said new technologies are not yet suitable for mission-critical supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) applications, such as smart grid management, river level monitoring, oil and gas applications or civil defense warnings. This is primarily due to the lack of in-built resilience and the use of unlicensed spectrum.

Like many in public safety, I’ve been watching with great interest as manufacturers develop new and improved devices intended for use on public-safety networks that expand on previous versions’ functionality, survivability and overall suitability. Device features such as improved ruggedness, user-replaceable batteries and positive-locking accessory side connectors are major improvements as device manufacturers zero in on products that will work in the public-safety world.

The Kiowa (Oklahoma) Police Department deployed a mobile platform for data collection, digital evidence management and workflow from SceneDoc. Kiowa was the first agency in Oklahoma to invest in the platform, which leverages smartphones to securely issue citations.

Software developed by APD Communications is the first to be officially certified to support the U.K. Emergency Services Network (ESN). The Network Approval Testing Service (NATS) accredited APD’s Cortex, a company statement said.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) released its 2018 Mobile Security Research and Development (R&D) Program Guide that introduces the technology projects, goals and objectives and their alignment with DHS and federal mobile security strategies and priorities.

The Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) staff is gearing up for the annual Public Safety Broadband Stakeholder Meeting with some big changes planned for the 2018 event. More than 450 attendees are expected to converge at the San Diego Convention Center Jun 5 – 8, said Dereck Orr, PSCR chief.

EE was allocated 3.54 – 3.58 GHz spectrum in the U.K. 4G and 5G airwaves auction, paying an additional £1 million (US$1.4 million) from the assignment stage. EE won the 40 megahertz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £302.6 million (US$431.4 million) in the assignment stage.

CommScope and Ericsson completed interoperability testing of their Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) equipment, one of the first successful interoperability tests using the Wireless Innovation Forum’s release 1.2 specifications.

AT&T and Crown Castle signed a new agreement simplifying and expanding their long-term leasing deal for wireless network infrastructure. Under the new agreement, leasing management and operations are streamlined to allow AT&T to efficiently deploy new technologies and increase network capacity, a statement said.

SK Telecom (SKT) and Nokia are conducting a trial of Long Term Evolution (LTE) public-safety technologies in South Korea. The trial in Pyeongchang, Jeongsun and Gangneung is being conducted with first responder teams to enhance communications and response time in emergency situations.