New Zealand introduces a dedicated public safety cellular network for police, fire & ambulance emergency services
Public safety cellular networks are vital for ensuring that first responders can effectively communicate during a crisis, improving response times and coordination, and ultimately saving lives. Often, during large-scale emergencies, the bandwidth of cellular services becomes congested and may fail due to public use. First responders in New Zealand now will get priority access to a dedicated cell network, ensuring that their communications are not delayed or disrupted by the general public's use of cellular services. New Zealand's Next Generation Critical Communications (NGCC) announced its first Public Safety Network solution. Police, fire, and ambulance agencies now have the confidence to seamlessly connect to a dedicated public safety cellular network and communicate and coordinate their responses independently and across agencies when required.
New Zealand has followed in the footsteps of the United States, where in the US, a collaboration between AT&T and the First Responder Network Authority offers FirstNet - a dedicated spectrum for first responders to avoid cell network congestion. In an emergency, AT&T will prioritize FirstNet users to Band 14 over non-FirstNet users and, if necessary, drop all commercial traffic and dedicate the network exclusively to first responders. For this reason, a regular cell phone might stop working during a crisis. Still, a FirstNet-enabled device will continue to work, including Flightcell's DZMx & DZMx PLUS, both of which are FirstNet compatible with FirstNet features and Band14.
New Zealand's Public Safety Network's Cellular Services solution uses the networks of the country's two largest network providers, Spark and One NZ. Both providers have come together and provided access to their networks for emergency services using just one special SIM card. First responders who use aircraft for their missions must insert the special PSN SIM card into the Flightcell DZMx or DZMx PLUS to utilize the public safety network. Once done, 'PSN' will display on the unit, showing them they're using the public safety network and can automatically connect to a reliable and secure cell site, providing communication certainty when conducting missions from the skies.
Cellular connectivity generally offers faster data transfer speeds than satellite connectivity. Cellular networks are typically designed to support high-speed data transfer, while satellite networks have limited bandwidth. This is advantageous for first responders connected to the PSN network.
A growing trend shows that first responders are increasingly communicating with video and data. Given this, when pairing the New Zealand Public Safety Network SIM card with the Flightcell DZMx or DZMx PLUS, first responders operating in the air can share and receive data, voice, text, video, and images. This greatly assists in making well-calculated decisions to provide the best possible care to those in need.
As the world continues to face extreme conditions, such as natural disasters, large-scale emergencies, and cyberattacks, public safety cellular networks are becoming increasingly important to keep our first responders safe and to provide reliable, secure, and fast communications so that they can provide the best level of care to communities that need help.
Unfortunately, public safety networks are not operating in most countries. The United States, New Zealand, and some European countries are leading the way in public safety network technology. Let's hope this technology is swiftly adopted and becomes widespread across the globe for the benefit of first responders and the general public.