The first quarterly Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Plenary e-meetings of 2021 recently concluded, with a focus on the upcoming June deadline for stage 2 (architecture) work. There were major discussions on the use of the 5G New Radio (NR) sidelink interface to support both user equipment (UE) to network (U2N) relay and UE to UE (U2U) relay.

Malheur County, Oregon, contracted Federal Engineering to provide public-safety consulting services.

The co-chairs of the Congressional Fire Services and Law Enforcement Caucuses sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy supporting the Next-Generation 9-1-1 Act of 2021.

The members of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) elected Charles Cullen and Leah Hornacek to serve on its board of directors and help lead the association’s mission to improve 9-1-1 through research, standards development, training, education, outreach and advocacy.

Sonim Technologies appointed Mike Mulica and Ken Naumann as independent directors. In connection with their appointment, Sonim increased the size of its board to seven members.

Axon and RapidSOS partnered to provide emergency first responders and 9-1-1 telecommunicators access to critical emergency incident information from Axon devices being used by law enforcement officers.

The FCC approved a third notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on ways to improve 9-1-1 reliability.

The FCC approved an order that completes its 800 MHz rebanding program at its April 22 meeting.

North Texas citizens dialing 9-1-1 may soon begin receiving text messages from the 9-1-1 telecommunicator with a link to pinpoint their location. This feature is one of the tools included with a new dispatch map that has been implemented throughout the North Central Texas Emergency Communications District's 13-county region.

The Florida legislature passed and Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that re-establishes a surcharge that helps fund the Florida Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System (SLERS).