Welcome, everybody. My name is Allison Brooks. I am Research Vice President of Public Safety and Smart Cities at IDC. Thank you for joining today's webinar on 5G network slicing and the future of public safety communications. I'm particularly excited to share insights about this transformative technology with you today. Before we dive in, let me set the stage for our discussion. Reliable communications has always been the backbone of effective emergency response. Just as firefighters need their hoses and police officers need their vehicles, all first responders need dependable communications. But today's public safety landscape is rapidly evolving. Beyond traditional radio systems, we're seeing a digital transformation in public safety that's introducing everything from body worn video cameras to drone operations, from augmented reality headsets for firefighters to AI enabled traffic systems. And while these technologies promise to revolutionize emergency response, they all share one critical requirement, robust, reliable and secure connectivity. And that's really where 5G comes in. And that's what we're going to explore in detail today. So over the next 15 to 20 minutes, we're going to examine the current challenges facing first responder communications, understand the key technologies enabling these solutions, and explore real world applications that are already making a difference in the field. So let's begin by examining the fundamental challenges that first responders face with current communication systems. And from my perspective, it's really critical. Understanding these pain points is crucial because they directly impact the safety and effectiveness of our emergency services. So let me start with the perhaps the most fundamental challenge, coverage gaps. First responders often find themselves moving in and out of coverage areas, particularly along highways between towns or in rural districts where infrastructure is sparse. And during a multi agency response like a search and rescue scenario, teams might need to coordinate across several jurisdictions, each with their own coverage gaps and blind spots. And what makes this especially challenging is that these gaps often exist in the very places where reliable communications is most critical. So think about firefighters working in remote forests, or rescue teams responding to accidents on isolated stretches of Hwy. or emergency medical services trying to coordinate air ambulance operations in rural areas. In all of these scenarios, the lack of reliable coverage isn't just frustrating, it's it can seriously impact the effectiveness of the response and ultimately public safety outcomes. The second critical challenge is what we call variable performance. This has been increasingly problematic recently as public safety agencies adopt more advanced digital tools. And here, you know, think about a police officers body worn video camera trying to stream crucial evidence in real time or paramedics attempting to transmit patient vitals from a moving ambulance, for example. Those modern tools require consistent high performance connectivity, something that current systems often struggle to provide, especially during those large scale emergencies when networks become congested. And perhaps the most concerning is our third challenge, disparate communications platforms. When multiple agencies respond to a a major incident, let's say a natural disaster that crosses jurisdictional boundaries, they often arrive with different communication systems operating on different frequencies with different power capabilities and levels. And and while some Emergency Management agencies try to coordinate these systems at the state level, these efforts aren't universal and sort of often fall short during large scale emergencies. I think the key take away for me out of, you know, these challenges is they're not just inconvenient, they can directly impact the effectiveness of emergency response and ultimately public safety outcomes. But the good news is that emerging technologies, particularly 5G, the focus of our talk today, offer solutions to these long standing issues. Just moving the slide forward, but let's first, you know, explore the key technologies that are making transformative solutions possible. Let's breakdown some of the essential concepts and that'll help us frame our later discussions about benefits and real world applications. So first, let's talk about 5G itself. When most most of us are familiar with 5G in the context of our mobile phones and but it's implications for public safety go far deeper. As of December 2024, you know operators worldwide have launched 5G services. But what makes 5G truly revolutionary isn't just speed. It's the combination of high bandwidth, ultra low latency, and the ability to support massive numbers of simultaneous connections. Think about this in sort of practical terms. 5G networks can support sub 10 millisecond latency, and that's fast enough to really enable remote medical guidance during an emergency response, with doctors providing real time augmented reality guidance to paramedics in the field. For example, the increased bandwidth means that thermal imaging feeds from inside burning buildings can be transmitted and analyzed in real time, helping to locate trapped victims faster. And then let's talk also about what we call 5G standalone or SA networks. This is a a crucial distinction that many people miss. The initial 5G networks were non standalone, meaning that they used, you know, 5G technology, but was really still running on 4G network course. And while this approach helped accelerate 5G development, it really didn't unlock a lot of five GS, most advanced capabilities. But five GSA networks on the other hand, provide true end to end 5G architecture, enabling feature features like network slicing. And Speaking of network slicing, this is where things get really interesting for public safety. So if you can imagine being able to create a dedicated virtual network within the physical 5G network completely isolated from regular traffic, that's what we're talking about here. It's like having your own private highway that can expand or contract based on your needs, but without having to build and maintain the actual Rd. yourself. So this virtual network can be customized for specific needs, whether that's prioritizing ultra low latency for remote medical applications or ensuring high bandwidth for video streaming from multiple body cameras simultaneously moving forward. So let's now talk a little bit more about how these technologies translate into concrete benefits for public safety agencies and 1st responders in the field. The first major benefit to me is priority access and preemption. We've all experienced how cellular networks can become congested during major event events or emergencies, exactly when first responders need reliable communications the most. With a dedicated 5G network slice, emergency communications remain isolated from public traffic and so you can think of it as having a dedicated express lane that's always open for emergency vehicles regardless of how congested the main highway becomes. Next, we have tailored connectivity performance. Different public safety applications have different connectivity needs. So body worn video cameras, for example, need high bandwidth for video streaming. Drone operations require ultra low latency for real time control, remote medical guidance that it needs both. So with network slicing, we can really create custom tailored network configurations for each of those use cases, ensuring optimal performance for each application. Security is another crucial benefit that can't be overstated. Traditional public safety communications primarily rely on encryption for security, but as the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA reported in January 2022, threats like frequency jammers and encryption based breaking software are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Network slicing provides an additional layer of security through isolation, so authorized unauthorized users can't access the slice even if they can manage to break the encryption. So on to a few more benefits and then we'll get into some real life examples. So perhaps most importantly, the technology future proofs public safety communications. As agencies adopt new tools and technologies, they can be deployed on the existing network slice infrastructure without building new communication systems from scratch. And this significantly reduces both the time and cost involved in implementing those new capabilities. OK. Wanted to give you some examples of 5G innovations. So if we look at some real world applications that are already transforming emergency response, you can see this whole notion of 5G network slicing coming into reality from its conceptual basis. So in emergency medical services, we're seeing connected ambulances revolutionizing patient care, where rather than relying on voice communications to relay vital signs and and patient info, ambulance is equipped with 5G connectivity, can transmit real time patient data directly to emergency to rooms. And this allows hospital staff to prepare precisely for incoming patients and enables remote physicians to guide paramedics through complex procedures if and when necessary. Secondly, Bonnie Worn Video has evolved from a simple evidence collection to a real time situational awareness tool. With 5G high bandwidth capabilities, command centers can now receive live high definition video feeds from multiple officers simultaneously if they wish, enabling better coordination and faster response to developing situations. And I think one of the most innovative applications we're seeing is in firefighting augmented reality solutions that are powered by 5 GS low latency are allowing 5G firefighters to access buildings, schematics and thermal imaging data through heads up displays, which I've actually demoed myself. And they're really cool while they're inside burning buildings. I was not inside of Burling building when we when I tested that out. So these technologies are really literally, quite literally, helping save lives by enabling faster victim location and safer navigation through hazardous environments. Asset Mac management tracking has also been transformed. Agencies can now track and monitor personnel, vehicles and equipment in real time with unprecedented precision and predictive maintenance. These capabilities are particularly crucial during large scale emergencies when resources need to be coordinated across multiple agencies and jurisdictions. And finally, we're seeing remarkable improvements in collaborative command and control. So the ability to share data, video and other critical information seamlessly between agencies, that's becoming far more coordinated and an effective emergency response system for our first responders. All right. So as we conclude today's webinar, I wanted to emphasize several critical points about public safety communications where it's all headed. First and foremost, we're witnessing a fundamental shift in how emergency services can operate. The days of first responders struggling with spotty radio and coverage or getting blocked by not network congestion during major incidents are becoming a thing of the past. With dedicated 5G, agencies can now have access to what is there essentially their own private network. What makes this particularly exciting is the future proof nature of the technology. As we discussed today, agencies are already deploying innovative solutions like real time video streaming and AR enabled firefighting equipment. But this is really just the beginning. The flexible nature of network slicing means that as new technologies emerge, whether that's more advanced drone operations, AI powered decision support systems, or technologies we I haven't even imagined yet, these underlying network infrastructure capabilities are ready to support them. And security, which has always been a critical concern in emergency services, is enhanced through the inherent isolation of network slices. This addresses not just the confidentiality of sensitive communications, but also ensures the integrity and availability of these vital services when they're needed the most. Looking ahead, we're seeing the convergence of several trends that make this technology even more crucial. The roll out of Next Gen. 911, the increasing adoption of data intensive tools like body worn videos, and the push towards more integrated multi agency response capabilities all depend on having reliable, high performance communications infrastructure. And the bottom line for me is net 5G network slicing isn't just an incremental improvement in public safety communications. It's a transformative technology that's enabling a new new era of emergency response. It's making our first responders more effective, better connected, and ultimately better equipped to save lives. Thanks for your attention today. I look forward to our continuing discussions on the importance of public safety communications. And please download the IDC info brief that we have a link to in the communications platform here. And I look forward to talking with you in the future. _1740949579404