Tech to Protect, NIST PSCR’s national innovative challenge, introduces coding contests designed to foster communications technology solutions that will aid emergency responders in serving and protecting communities nationwide. Participants will compete for cash prizes from a pool of $2.2 million. The FirstNet Authority is pleased to have technical subject matter experts from our organization leading three contests.

The FirstNet Authority met with professionals working in emergency communication centers (ECCs) at Arizona’s Public Safety Broadband Forum for PSAPs to discuss how ECCs are using FirstNet and how to integrate FirstNet into 911 operations.

Technology is revolutionizing how medical professionals work, communicate and care for patients.  Nowhere is that more true than in the emergency medical services (EMS) field. As new technologies enter the marketplace and promise improved patient outcomes and access to care, EMS professionals require a reliable and effective communications network every day and for every emergency. The answer lies in FirstNet.

Through FirstNet’s extended primary user program, schools, hospitals, and other non-traditional public safety entities can benefit from everything the network has to offer. FirstNet helped one such extended primary user, Texas City Independent School District, communicate during two incidents.

Thanks to a public-private partnership between the FirstNet Authority and AT&T, FirstNet is now a reality—an expanding nationwide network for EMS and all of public safety. Read how FirstNet can help drive innovations forward and equip EMS practitioners and emergency care providers across the nation with new tools to help them save lives.