WASHINGTON, D.C., (February 22, 2024) – The Chairman of the Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI), Chief Kenneth Corey (NYPD, Ret.), today issued the following statement on the nationwide service outage.

“The widespread outage of cellular service today makes clear that public-safety communications should not be limited to a single communications network. According to reports, the outage has impacted 911 response and public-safety communications across the country. This is yet more evidence that public-safety networks require redundancy and resiliency in the event of unforeseen circumstances like this one. The proposal to move the 4.9 GHz spectrum band onto FirstNet’s network, and therefore a single commercial provider, is flawed for many reasons. A widespread outage like the one being experienced by public-safety entities today is just one more reason it should be rejected out of hand. Instead, public-safety should be able to retain their exclusive rights over the 4.9 spectrum and deploy it as they see fit to ensure reliable and resilient public-safety communications networks.”

To learn more about the CERCI please visit responsecoalition.com.

CONTACT: Jo Maney (jmaney@bgrpr.com)

ABOUT THE COALITION FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) is committed to maintaining local control of vital 4.9 GHz public-safety spectrum and working with the FCC to promote innovative usage of the band including non-interfering critical infrastructure uses. The founding members of the CERCI are Competitive Carriers Association, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), Major Cities Chiefs Association, National Sheriffs Association, T-Mobile, Verizon, and UScellular. Additional members include the California State Sheriffs’ Association, the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies.