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 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.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a list of approved devices under the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) Device Approval Program.NIST Releases List of Devices Approved for FirstNet Network

Comtech Telecommunications received a two-year multimillion dollar contract to provide next-generation text to 9-1-1 for the state of Maryland.

Six Rice electrical and computer engineering students developed hardware and software to coordinate sensor-carrying drones that can evaluate local atmospheric conditions, measure electronic signals such as Wi-Fi and map areas in three dimensions.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is supporting the development and deployment of the first two Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR) research platforms, based in Salt Lake City and New York City.

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.