Text to 9-1-1 offers an additional way for the public to contact 9-1-1, but it can also help provide first responders with improved situational awareness as shown by a recent incident in Michigan.

A team of university students won Motorola Solutions’ Australian hackathon. Developers from Swinburne University claimed top honors with an app concept designed to improve the quality and accuracy of public reports about landslides, fallen trees and other dangers.

The Alliance for Telecommunication Industry Solutions (ATIS) Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) announced the first deliverable from a joint initiative to improve public-safety answering point (PSAP) notification in the event of a service outage will be available in June.

Finland, Norway and Sweden prepared and signed a white paper noting the importance of international cooperation in public protection and disaster response (PPDR) communications. The paper follows a notice of intent signed by officials from each of the three countries this week.

The chairman and CEO of AT&T said the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) rollout is one of its top priorities, behind closing the carrier’s pending acquisition of Time Warner and integrating the two companies. Randall Stephenson made the remarks May 15 to investors at the JP Morgan Technology, Media and Communications conference.

Motorola Solutions teamed with Edgybees, a company it recently invested in, to demonstrate how augmented reality (AR) integrated with live drone footage can provide an immersive experience for control room and incident managers at Critical Communications World (CCW) in Berlin.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information David Redl touted the benefits of 5G in May 14 remarks.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) selected 10 state, local and tribal governments as participants in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program. First announced last October, this White House initiative partners the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with local, state and tribal governments, which then partner with private sector participants to safely explore the further integration of drone operations.

A European consortium of 12 industry and academy partners from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom won approval from the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 to begin working on Brain-IoT. The focus will be on interoperability and cybersecurity in the context of the internet of things (IoT).

The European Emergency Number Association (EENA), and DJI, a civilian drones and aerial imaging technology firm, are extending their research partnership to further integrate drones into rescue operations.