Friday fragments — critical comms snippets for 11 September 2015

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 11 September 2015.

In-building comms. On the anniversary of the collapse of the Twin Towers during the September 11 terrorist attacks, Yossi Segal of Mobilicom has written a blog entry on the issue of providing the best in-building communications solution for first responders.

Wide-open-spaces comms. It’s not only inside buildings where communications problems can occur. Bill Schrier, chair of the Washington State Interoperability Executive Committee, has written a piece on GeekWire describing how preventable comms issues have led to the deaths of firefighters fighting wildfires. He also canvasses several technologies that can help prevent those sorts of deaths from happening again.

Military comms interoperability. Representatives from 21 nations have spent the past two weeks working and training together with the aim of improving interoperability preparedness. The Multinational Communications Interoperability Program (MCIP) is a US military-led exercise, this year hosted in the Philippines. Training modules include SatCom Endeavor, where participants familiarise themselves with satellite communications systems, and Radio Endeavor, where participants synchronise older over-the-air radio technology.

Chilean company expands TETRA deal. Chilean company Forestal Mininco has expanded its network managed services agreement with Motorola Solutions. Using the TETRA messaging application, the system provides a multitude of solutions — from relaying weather data from deep within forests, to fleet management, to electronic dispatch — over a region of 49,000 km².

FirstNet boss speaks. You can listen to an interview with TJ Kennedy, the president of FirstNet, on the Federal News Radio website.