With more than 60 wildfires actively burning in more than a dozen states, the Verizon Frontline Response Team continues to deploy mission-critical communications technology in support of public-safety agencies and the nearly 10,000 wildland firefighters currently on the front lines. This year alone, the Verizon Frontline Response Team has deployed nearly 1,000 Verizon Frontline solutions to first responders in 18 states including Alaska, North Carolina, Florida, California, Texas and New Mexico.

Vendors announced a variety of new products and services during the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International’s annual conference and expo.

Coinciding with a new local investment of $15,000 and a STEM event in St. Louis, Verizon is celebrating the completion of a mentoring program with St. Louis non-profit Gateway Global, whose STEM-based apprenticeship education and workforce development solutions foster entry-level tech jobs, promotions to management and beyond.

Airport Police and Fire at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), the second busiest cargo airport in the United States, went live with CentralSquare’s Public Safety Suite Pro system. With CentralSquare’s Public Safety Suite Pro, ANC’s police and fire department is updating its systems and transitioning to a paperless environment by automating reporting.

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) division launched its Public-Safety Immersive Test Center in Boulder, Colorado in May.

Rajant deployed its fourth-generation BreadCrumb Peregrine, which provides a four-to-six time increase in overall throughput capacity, enabling a host of new applications, at a South African mine.

The FCC opened bidding in its latest mid-band spectrum auction to support next generation wireless services, including 5G.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Spectrum Innovation Act, which would provide up to $10 billion in funding for next-generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1).

After two days of its first-ever fixed-wing test flights in western Maryland, AURA Network Systems reported successful demonstrations of its critical communications links to assure safe operations of remotely piloted commercial flights beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and its National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) hosted Urban OpEx 2022, an operational experimentation (OpEx) where first responders evaluated new and emerging technology solutions in realistic, urban settings throughout the New York Metropolitan area during the week of July 18 - 22.