Fusion platform designed to give public safety greater vendor choice, integration of myriad applications, and MCX that can be used over other carriers
By Donny Jackson, Editor, Urgent Communications
AT&T’s FirstNet unit today announced FirstNet Fusion, a 3GPP-standards-based mission-critical (MCX) platform that is designed to enhance public-safety interoperability via mission-critical push-to-talk, 911 and situational-awareness solutions—including those used by personnel who subscribe to other wireless carriers.
AT&T’s head of FirstNet and next-generation 911 products, Matt Walsh said the introduction of the Fusion platform is a reflection of AT&T’s goal to let public safety respond to emergencies—“from call to car to crisis”—with its choice of communications tools.
“This is an exciting opportunity to serve public safety in a new way,” Walsh said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “There are a lot of new capabilities built into this platform that we think are going be game-changers for communication and interoperability.
“We don’t want to keep them in a silo of just our communications solutions. We want to give them the opportunity to take other solutions and integrate them into Fusion.”
President of AT&T’s FirstNet team that is contracted to build and operate the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) Scott Agnew echoed this sentiment.
“FirstNet is in a league of its own—and Fusion further reinforces our unwavering commitment to providing all first responders with the tools they need to protect communities and save lives,” Agnew said in a prepared statement.
“As the first to deliver nationwide mission-critical push-to-talk and now bringing public safety a future-ready interoperability solution for the connected responder, we are setting a new standard for how America responds to emergencies and coordinates operations.”
One key foundational component of the Fusion platform is technology from Streamwide, the France-based company with MCX solutions—3GPP-standard-compliant mission-critical-push-to-talk (MCPTT), MCData and MCVideo—that were used by security forces during the Paris Olympics last year. AT&T announced its choice of Streamwide as an MCX provider less than three weeks ago.
This Streamwide-powered Fusion MCPTT service will replace FirstNet PTT, the original FirstNet MCPTT offering powered by Samsung that did not gain much traction in the public-safety market and will be sunset at the end of the year, Walsh said. FirstNet PTT subscribers will be the first to trial the Fusion platform as they decide what broadband PTT product they want to use in the future, he said.
One reason many public-safety representatives said FirstNet PTT was not adopted more was that it originally was supported by only one device and users could only communicate with other FirstNet PTT subscribers.
In contrast, the Fusion MCPTT offering is immediately supported by all cellular devices and supports interoperable PTT with land-mobile-radio (LMR) systems via Fusion Link, the 3GPP-standard Interworking Function (IWF) solution that is supplied by Etherstack, according to Walsh.
FirstNet subscribers will continue to have Rapid Response—the MCPTT offering from Motorola Solutions built from technology secured through the purchase of Kodiak Networks in 2017—as an MCPTT option, Walsh said. However, Rapid Response will be separate from Fusion.
“It comes down to giving public safety choice,” Walsh said. “There are some that are really invested and bought into the Motorola ecosystem and have a preference to stay there. We’re giving them an opportunity to have that option to do that and still be on the FirstNet network, but bringing Fusion as an alternative path for them to be able to facilitate these communications.”
Walsh said AT&T designed the Fusion platform to support interoperable communications with any application from any vendor in the long term, but that is not yet case initially. Rapid Response is an example of this, he said.
“Overall, our goal is to provide interoperability across platforms; our intent is to facilitate that interoperability across platforms,” Walsh said when asked about Fusion’s interoperability with Rapid Response. “At launch, that won’t be case.”
Similar interoperability issues exist with MCPTT offerings from other carriers, like Verizon and T-Mobile. But AT&T is using the Fusion platform to let public-safety users quickly resolve interoperability problems quickly at the scene of an emergency response “in a way that we’ve never done it before,” Walsh said.
“We’re allowing customers to take the Fusion application to any carrier they want and to make that work on any carrier, because—when there’s an event—there’s no way to ensure that everybody who shows up to that event will be on FirstNet,” Walsh said. “So, we want to give those users who are on other carriers the opportunity to connect to Fusion and be able to communicate with those on Fusion.
“Out of the gates, we are extending interoperability across carrier networks by letting them take the application and use it on any network they choose.”
Walsh explained how a public-safety agency will be able to use Fusion MCX on another carrier’s network, particularly at the scene of an emergency response.
“They can procure it in one of two ways,” Walsh said. “They can establish a direct relationship with FirstNet to purchase those. But we know that—in these events where people need access—they’re not always going to have the time to coordinate that.
“So, the coordinator of whatever agency has the Fusion application will also be able to purchase licenses on behalf of any user that they’d like and distribute that application—send them a link to download and a simple organization ID, and then they’re able to jump into the application. Then, the sponsoring agency can make the purchase of the license … They can purchase it at the time of the need.”
Walsh emphasized that Fusion is designed also to meet the needs of an individual first responder, such as a volunteer firefighter.
“It’s not just for agencies,” Walsh said. “That volunteer population that today can’t take advantage of any mission-critical-push-to-talk solution—they’re isolated from it. So, volunteer fire [personnel]. or whatever the case may be, will have the ability to buy and procure services for their devices, as well.
“That could be done either at the agency level … or in a volunteer environment—where the user pays the entire bill—they have the ability to procure the service, as well.”
AT&T provide assurances that its MCX offerings to FirstNet subscribers will adhere to the 3GPP standards as the traffic is on the FirstNet system, but it cannot do the same if the Fusion application is used over another carrier’s network, Walsh said.
“There’s no integration into mission-critical capabilities into other carrier networks,” Walsh said. “So, you would be beholden to whatever level of service those carriers could provide you as they provide you service.
“[Letting Fusion be used on other networks is] an important capability, and it really does answer an interoperability mission that says, ‘I want to use any carrier I want and communicate with these people on Fusion,’ and we want to allow that. That’s important. But it is equivalent at that point to an over-the-top solution.”
Walsh said AT&T would be willing to discuss changing this situation, which has been a concern voiced by the public-safety community for years.
“We’re open to conversations where other carriers may desire to interoperate with Fusion,” Walsh said.
Another key aspect of the Fusion platform is its ability to support applications from a variety of vendors with public-safety solutions. Today, AT&T announced Fusion integrations with Carbyne and Axon, but “this is just the tip of the iceberg for us,” according to Walsh.
“It’s built with the integration of the ecosystem in mind, so it’s APIs that allow you to interface with the Fusion platform,” he said.
In the case of cloud-native 911 call-handling solution provider Carbyne, “we’re moving toward the capability of them integrating dispatch directly into the call-handler’s screen,” noting that video from an emergency caller can be pushed through the Fusion platform to responders in the field, Walsh said.
“Imagine you’re taking the call and—within the call—you are able to open a window within that call-taking application that allows you to move directly to dispatching and sharing information from the caller,” Walsh said.
“Now, all the way from the call to the FirstNet Fusion user, you’re pushing video to give that first responder or incident commander that level of situational awareness that, quite frankly, is something that public safety has been asking for for quite some time.
“It’s this great integration of 911 capabilities into mission-critical communications. It’s something that’s kind of never been done before.”
Walsh expressed similar excitement about the integration with Axon, the leader in body-worn cameras used by public-safety agencies.
“We’re importing now all of Axon’s video location data,” Walsh said. “All of a sudden now, hundreds of thousands of cameras that are out there can be integrated into the Fusion dashboard. Now, those users can be seen, just as if they were a regular Fusion user.
“Think about the long-term vision of that. Obviously, there is video. Obviously, there is voice. There are so many things you can do with a camera, and now you’ve created another endpoint. There’s a lot of opportunities to expand into providing meaningful use cases to public safety through those kinds of integrations.”
Walsh said he believes the Fusion platform can provide the public-safety community with a level of vendor options it has not experienced before.
“Today, you may be able to do portions of this, but you have to do it all with one vendor,” Walsh said. “What we want to do is create a platform that any vendor can join. Then, public safety can say, ‘I want Carbyne for this solution, or Axon for this solution or perhaps this other body-camera provider.’
“This is an opportunity for all of these different solutions providers to integrate and provide a single common operating picture for public safety.”
