Verizon public safety private core is open for business

By: Mike Maiorana, senior vice president, public sector, Verizon

Public safety asked and Verizon delivered, just as we have always done. Verizon has been a leading provider of communications services to public safety for decades – we know what it takes to serve this most important customer base.

That’s why we’re excited to unveil our public safety private core and preemption and mobile broadband priority services designed to enhance our industry-leading 4G LTE network for public safety.

The public safety private core separates data traffic of public safety mobile users from commercial users across Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Public safety users will have their data immediately recognized as public safety with priority access at the tower and through the network. The private core leverages leading edge networking technology to provide security, flexibility and reliability.

Mobile Broadband Priority service works with our existing Wireless Priority Service and private network traffic management to transmit the voice, data and Internet of Things (IoT) communications public safety and government agencies rely on to protect and serve. Preemption allows us to automatically reallocate network resources from commercial data/Internet users to first responders in the unlikely event network capacity is reached. 

Most importantly for public safety, these new services are available for public safety agencies now. Other public safety cores are still being tested. We’re open for business today and we can start onboarding clients immediately, not later this year as others promise.

Verizon’s public safety private core uses a wireless network public safety organizations trust and that is consistently ranked highest by third-party reporting agencies. Specifically, Verizon received the highest wireless network quality performance across all six regions by J.D. Power* for the third straight year. Verizon received more awards than any other wireless carrier in the US for the 20th time, 10 years in a row (a record). Additionally, RootMetrics** ranked Verizon number one in the nation for a record ninth consecutive testing period. Verizon was unbeaten in every measurement category (overall performance, reliability, speed, data, call and text).

We have 2.5 million square miles of 4G LTE coverage in the US. That’s more than 400,000 square miles more than AT&T – an area about the size of California and Texas combined. And we continue to work make our network even better. We have invested more than $111B in network infrastructure since 2000 and invest billions each year to expand and improve our network.

That’s why 98% of our sites stayed operational during Hurricane Harvey. And why during Hurricane Irma, while other carriers celebrated the use of much needed preemption service offerings, we celebrated the fact that we didn't have to use these services to maintain connectivity for first responders. Verizon did not have to rely on priority access or preemption because of our superior network capacity.

This isn’t a new marketplace for us – this is what we do.

Ensuring public safety organizations across the country have access to reliable wireless communications and a diverse ecosystem of products, services and applications is critical for the safety of our communities. A vigorously competitive marketplace where first responders have access to choice and competitively priced offerings is the best path forward.

We will announce additional products and services for public safety throughout the year, including an application developer ecosystem and mission critical push-to-talk services. Public safety needs innovative solutions like the ones we just unveiled, and we plan to continue to lead the market in this area as well.

Verizon has been pursuing this goal for years and will continue to do so.

Learn more about Verizon's support of public safety.

*Verizon Wireless received the highest numerical score among wireless service providers in the J.D. Power 2017 (V1 & V2) & 2018 (V1) U.S. Wireless Network Quality Performance Studies. 2018 V1 study is based on 38,595 total responses, measuring the network quality experienced by customers with wireless phones, surveyed July-December 2017. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com

**Rankings based on the RootMetrics® US National RootScore® Report: 2H 2017. Tested with best commercially available smartphones on 4 national mobile networks across all available network types. Your experiences may vary. The RootMetrics award is not an endorsement of Verizon. Visit www.rootmetrics.com for more details. Quotes from RootMetrics special reports “Mobile performance in the US part 1: performance across the entire US 2H 2017” and “Mobile performance in the US part 2: performance across the 50 states 2H 2017”