With each passing year, more options become available to public safety to augment their communications capabilities as Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems continue to serve their mission and broadband Mission Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT) capabilities mature and expand. Recent high-profile events demonstrate the need for fast, simple, and affordable methods to integrate external agencies into your communications, yet many of today’s solutions still create silos or sacrifice your agencies’ performance to provide inclusion. In addition, the capabilities of sharing location, pictures, and video between agencies are becoming the expectation rather than the special case. This session will examine the current state of LMR-to-LTE interoperability, the operational challenges agencies face, and the emerging best practices for adopting standards-based MCPTT in a multi-carrier environment. Through both presentation and live demonstration, attendees will see how solutions built on both P25 and 3GPP standards — such as FirstNet Fusion — illustrate how the industry is evolving toward an interoperability model that is no longer dependent on a single network, vendor, or technology and puts the control of such connectivity directly in the hands of public safety. The discussion will explore why a multi-carrier capable, MCPTT approach is essential to the future of public safety communications, how it strengthens mutual aid response, and what agencies should consider as they plan a sustainable, standards-based expansion from LMR to broadband.
Learning Objectives:
Understand the current challenges of LMR and LTE interoperability and the operational gaps they create during multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional response.
Learn what defines a standards-based MCPTT solution, its benefits in the field, and how it can be leveraged and to advance mutual aid - even across cellular networks.
Develop best-practice considerations for integrating P25 and 3GPP MCPTT services to support the future evolution of LMR-to-LTE interoperability.
