ADT announced that it will be the first home security provider to offer an enhanced communications experience via FirstNet – public safety's dedicated, nationwide communications platform.
FirstNet is being built with AT&T in a public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) – an independent agency within the federal government. It's designed for first responders and those critical to their emergency response. Covering over 99% of the U.S. population, FirstNet provides the public safety community with a reliable and highly secure connection to the critical information they need to respond to incidents.
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ADT continues to focus on helping protect our customers' homes and businesses, and this new collaboration exemplifies how we prioritize innovation to provide the most comprehensive solutions to our customers," said Don Young, Chief Information Officer and EVP of Field Operations, ADT. "ADT Command-monitored security system signals will be relayed within a network designed specifically for public safety – enabling an enhanced communications experience when help from first responders is needed most.”
ADT expects to have FirstNet Ready alarm panels available by the second half of this year. By integrating FirstNet service into ADT Command alarm panels, alerts sent from ADT-monitored customers to ADT's Emergency Operations Center will pass through the FirstNet network core.
Built from the ground up to give public safety users their own separate, nationwide broadband platform, the FirstNet network core is the only physically separate public safety core dedicated entirely to public safety in America. This physically separate architecture means that FirstNet traffic – including alerts from ADT-monitored customers – isn’t comingled with non-public safety traffic. This prevents public safety from having to compete with commercial users for resources while also providing unique security capabilities for public safety's sensitive communications.
Even in the wake of natural disasters or emergencies, where there would typically be an increased level of congestion on the network, ADT-monitored customers can have peace of mind knowing their alerts are being routed through FirstNet.
"FirstNet is bringing public safety a level of connectivity and advanced capability that's helping to transform the role communications plays in their emergency response," said Chris Sambar, senior vice president, FirstNet at AT&T. "By adding emergency alerts from ADT-monitored security systems to the FirstNet ecosystem, we are helping first responders get the critical information they need to respond to an incident as it's happening.”