A deal worked out by AT&T and the State of Alaska will supply a new private network for the state’s emergency responders that work in times of natural disaster when many first responders are jammed into the same networks as everyone else.
Gov. Bill Walker gave the go-ahead Aug. 30 for the State of Alaska to opt in to FirstNet by AT&T, a system that prioritizes public safety in emergency cases over regular commercial cell phone users.
John Rockwell, the statewide 911 coordinator for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, gave an example to show the life-saving benefits soon to be at emergency responders’ fingertips.
“Let’s say there’s a major incident on the highway where we have 30,000 cars on it a day,” Rockwell said.