An initiative to interconnect three Pennsylvania regions via a fiber-optic communications network to improve emergency response was completed at the end of October. The project was supported by Mission Critical Partners (MCP).

Hytera Communications’ U.S. subsidiaries asked a U.S. bankruptcy court to expedite its consideration of a proposed sale of their assets to a recently formed Hytera entity.

During a speech at the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance’s (DSA) virtual Global Summit, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai touted the commission’s work to free up more space for wireless growth and development in multiple spectrum bands, as well as its work to develop more advanced spectrum sharing techniques.

The Fifth European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) MCX Plugtests saw a 95% success rate in its testing. While three of the previous four plugtests events were held in person and the fifth was originally planned to be in-person, the fifth event was held virtually because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Officials from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) adopted a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to guide joint standards development work undertaken by the two organizations when renewing a joint standard.

The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) released two standards and is seeking public comment on them.

The arrival of 5G has a lot to offer the public-safety community. With its faster speeds, greater capacity, ultra-low latencies and advanced support for IoT, 5G will enable massive adoption of new public safety applications. These will include remote-controlled devices, field delivery of telemedicine and improved situational awareness using drones and video analytics complementing current LTE/4.9G mission-critical networks.

In a future powered by 5G, the world is expected to look very different. The 5G platform promises to be a catalyst for a technology and digital revolution that will take place across various industries, redefining collaboration, operational and business patterns, and user experiences. Service and application landscapes across a host of sectors, including healthcare, manufacturing, energy, public safety, transport and smart cities, will be immensely impacted.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in partnership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), awarded $2 million to the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI), a DHS Center of Excellence (COE) led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), to develop a plan that CISA can execute to build a national network of cybersecurity technical institutes.

The FCC approved Liberty Latin America’s acquisition of AT&T’s Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) operations, following an agreement between Liberty and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that allowed the acquisition to move forward.