- T-Mobile is trying to increase its share in the public safety market
- The operator is leveraging its 5G SA network to offer network slicing
- Some 350 members of the LA Fire Department are using T-Priority
T-Mobile last year debuted its T-Priority service for public safety in New York City, the largest city in the U.S., with the idea that if it could make it there, it could make it anywhere.
Apparently, that “anywhere” includes the nation’s second largest city, Los Angeles, where T-Mobile is serving T-Priority for 350 members of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). It’s offering it at no cost for at least 30 days.
With T-Priority, T-Mobile is allocating a network slice of its 5G standalone (SA) network to the first responders, giving them more capacity, faster 5G speeds and the highest priority, said Nicole Hudnet, industry segment advisor for T-Mobile’s Emergency Response Team.
“We’ve been receiving a lot of requests for Wi-Fi routers, hot spots and devices on our network because our network speeds and the availability of our network have been strong for first responders here,” she said from a command center at Zuma Beach.
It’s just one of the things T-Mobile is doing in the LA region, where members of its engineering emergency response team have been hunkered down since the wildfires swept through the region more than a week ago. T-Mobile’s infrastructure vendor in the LA market is Ericsson.
Besides network slicing, T-Mobile is using AI, software defined networking and network self-optimization to tweak antennas on the fly, making sure they’re maximizing T-Mobile’s coverage capacity based in the constantly changing situation. T-Mobile has done about 9,000 remote changes to its network during the wildfires, said Stacy Tindell, senior director, Network Engineering and Operations at T-Mobile.
“We like having a lot of tools in the toolbox because all of them are needed, depending on the situation on the ground,” she told Fierce.
T-Mobile was the first U.S. operator to commercially launch a 5G SA core; most operators worldwide started their migrations to 5G using a non-standalone (NSA) core that relies on LTE as the anchor. The 5G SA core is what allows carriers to offer network slicing to enterprises; it’s been long promised as a way for operators to actually make a profit from their 5G upgrades.
Verizon and AT&T are moving to 5G SA cores at their own, slower pace.
Verizon told Fierce that its 5G SA core is commercially available in LA, although it’s not quite at the stage where they’re ready to talk about specific public safety agencies using it. Verizon is serving public safety agencies battling the LA fires via its commercial wireless network as well as through Verizon Frontline, the division dedicated to emergency and first responders.
“We are working with multiple agencies to test and refine the technology over the course of a series of trials across a number of public safety use cases,” a Verizon spokesperson said.
AT&T also turned on its 5G SA network in LA, and it’s in the process of migrating customers to its 5G SA services, a spokesperson said. Besides smartphones, its AT&T Internet Air fixed wireless home internet service runs on 5G SA, including in Los Angeles, she said.
Verizon, AT&T lead in public safety
Verizon enjoyed the lion’s share of the public safety market for years, but AT&T challenged it when in 2017 it won the 25-year government contract for FirstNet Authority, giving it bragging rights at providing the first nationwide network dedicated to public safety.
FirstNet is in a league of its own as an entire communications platform dedicated to public safety – “not a commercial offering or a slice of one,” said Scott Agnew, president of AT&T’s FirstNet division.
“It provides first responders with a highly secure and dedicated network core, dedicated spectrum when they need it, always-on priority and preemption, and unprecedented network visibility,” he told Fierce in a statement. “No connection is more important than one that can help save a life and, as California first responders and those providing mutual aid come together to battle the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, the FirstNet team at AT&T is honored to work along their side to deliver reliable connectivity that best serves their critical operations.”
For T-Mobile, nowhere to go but up
T-Mobile freely admits to having the lowest share of the first responder market, but services like the 5G-supported T-Priority give it an opportunity to grow market share where it couldn’t in past generations. It also has the expertise of former Sprint and Nextel Communications executives like Hudnet who first developed relationships with the first responder community decades ago.
With network slicing, T-Mobile has been gaining in both public and private environments for some time now, noted industry analyst Chetan Sharma.
“I think the T-Priority’s value proposition is quite compelling both from coverage and reliability point of view,” he told Fierce. “SA and 2.5 GHz give them a natural advantage in terms of reach and cost. So, I think they have a pretty competitive offering in the market."
Verizon and AT&T, of course, have historical advantages, “but T-Priority is getting a second look by many public safety entities,” he concluded.