Augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are finding holds in the commercial market as consumers adopt the technology for gaming, learning and other users. While not as established as it is in the commercial market, AR is also beginning to creep into the public-safety market.

The Indiana Statewide 9-1-1 Board has selected AT&T to help modernize legacy 9-1-1 systems across the state. Through the collaboration, AT&T will replace outdated 9-1-1 infrastructure with AT&T emergency services IP network (ESInet) covering more than 60% of Indiana’s 6.6 million citizens.

The U.S. government is accepting comment on draft rule that would ban federal agencies from buying telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from five Chinese companies, including Hytera Communications and Huawei.

To enhance public safety and quality of life in communities across northern Illinois, ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus announced grants of up to $10,000 each to 25 public agencies through the ComEd Powering Safe Communities Program. From radios to cameras, the projects address critical safety needs in the communities ComEd serves.

Siemens Mobility and Softil announced an agreement to bring a range of next-generation communications solutions to market for use in Long Term Evolution-Railway (LTE-R) railways as well as mission-critical push-to-talk (MCPTT) metro applications such as underground, trams and buses.

A Public Safety Technology Alliance (PSTA) subcommittee identified the Project 25 (P25) Digital Fixed Station Interface (DFSI) as the best integration protocol standard for LMR and Long Term Evolution (LTE) interoperability. The subcommittee said an enhanced radio over IP (RoIP) protocol could also be developed to address DFSI’s shortcomings.

UbiquitiLink raised $5.2 million in seed 2 round financing from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and Blazar Ventures. This brings the company’s total funding to date to $12 million and will accelerate development of the company’s commercial service with a series of five space test flights of its technology.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced final allocations of $350 million for six fiscal year (FY) 2019 DHS competitive preparedness grant programs. These allocations together with the more than $1.3 billion in non-competitive grant funding announced by DHS in April, total more than $1.7 billion in FY 2019 granted to assist states, local areas, tribal and territorial governments, nonprofit agencies, and the private sector with their preparedness efforts.

A report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) addresses interoperability of real-time public-safety data. The report is intended to inform and motivate public-safety leaders to create the conditions for first responders to derive maximum operational benefits from the capabilities provided by emerging technologies and the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN).

In an ex parte filing with the FCC, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International voiced concerns with proposed rules around wireless 9-1-1 location accuracy, the 6 GHz band and the wireless resiliency cooperative framework.