PR Archives:  LatestBy Company By Date


Press Release -- October 20th, 2017
Source: Verizon
Tags:

Verizon Public Safety Day: “We’ve got your back”

Media contact(s)
Kevin King
T. 908.559.3491

“We are proud to continue to be your partner and we wanted to take a moment to reaffirm our continued commitment to public safety.”

With those words, Janet Imwold, director of business sales for Verizon Wireless, kicked off the Philadelphia-area public safety day with a clear message to the assembled public safety, law enforcement and local government officials: Verizon has your back.

Imwold referenced our plan to build a dedicated public safety network core and add priority access and preemption service for public safety as the latest effort by Verizon to support collaboration and communication among public safety and law enforcement.

The Verizon Public Safety Days are an opportunity to local police, government and public safety agencies and first responders to hear from their peers, Verizon and our technology partners about the work we do to support their mission and the importance of reliable communication in doing their job. In addition to Imwold, the small group, representing six counties, towns or municipalities in the Philadelphia area, heard from David Yoel from American Aerospace Technologies, Mark Azeff from the Montgomery County (PA) detectives unit and Verizon’s Tim Marsh. They also got a tour of the wireless facility and our mobile wireless assets, including a pull-in generator (PIG) and a cell on light truck (COLT).

Yoel discussed the work his company does with Verizon to use aircraft and drones for cell site inspection and to provide temporary cell coverage using autonomous aircraft. American Aerospace recently supported Verizon during the Northern California wildfires and participated in a demonstration in Cape May, NJ earlier this year.

Lt. Azeff shared examples of work his department does that depends on reliable wireless connectivity, including the department’s covert tracker program.

“We’re tracking bad people – drug dealers, distributors and the like,” he said. “If we have a sensor in a bag with several kilos of cocaine, I need to be able to track where that goes and track where my guys are. I can’t have connectivity issues.”

Tim Marsh spoke about “combating the noise” surrounding Verizon’s support of public safety in relation to FirstNet. Marsh outlined the details of our network superiority – including recent recognition by Root Metrics – and spoke about specific programs Verizon has to support public safety and first responders before, during and after a crisis.

The event ended with a tour of the facility and some of our mobile wireless assets. Senior Network Assurance Manager, Uche Okolo lead the tour and spoke about our redundant operations, network monitoring and other practices that go into creating and maintaining a reliable network, for consumers and for public safety officials. Okolo and her team are even able to identify when area schools let out by increases in network traffic around school campuses!

Verizon is committed to supporting public safety through interoperability, innovation and choice. We have invested billions of dollars to create a network and an operations structure that can support public safety – even during times of crisis. The Public Safety Days are an opportunity for public safety officials to learn more about Verizon’s commitment to and experience in the space. If you are interested in learning more about these events – including one that may happen near you – contact your local Verizon business sales representative.

Verizon Public Safety Day: “We’ve got your back”

PR Archives: Latest, By Company, By Date