CCT speaks with Brad Morell, Director for Network Technology Operations and International Engagement at the First Responder Network Authority, and Mathew Walsh, Head of Public Safety Product at AT&T, about the evolution of FirstNet and the future of public safety communications.

Brad reflects on his three decades in public safety, including his experiences around the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics and the response to 9/11, and how communications failures helped drive the creation of a nationwide dedicated broadband network for first responders.

Together, Brad and Mathew discuss the partnership behind FirstNet, the continuing challenge of interoperability, the importance of international collaboration, and how technologies including IoT and AI could help make communications increasingly seamless for emergency services.

Ultimately, their ambition is simple: first responders should be able to focus on the incident in front of them, while the technology they rely on simply works.

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What will the next generation of mission-critical communications look like — and how can networks work seamlessly across borders?

In this episode of the CCT Podcast, host Philip Mason is joined by Ultan Mulligan, Chief Services Officer at ETSI, and Ari Toivonen, Chair of ETSI TC CCS and Chief Specialist at Erillisverkot, to discuss ETSI’s newly established Technical Committee on Critical Communications Systems.

Recorded at Critical Communications World, the conversation explores the move towards mission-critical broadband and 5G-based systems, the continuing role of TETRA, and the work required to create interoperable communications between countries.

They also discuss the relationship between ETSI and 3GPP, the importance of testing and certification, lessons from cross-border TETRA deployments in the Nordic countries, and why EUCCS could help create a more consistent critical communications ecosystem across Europe and beyond.

For emergency services and other critical users, the ultimate ambition is straightforward: when networks and people need to work together, the technology should simply work.

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Recorded at Critical Communications World 2026, host Philip Mason speaks with Brooks Shannon about how mapping, location data and spatial intelligence can support faster and safer emergency response.

The conversation explores the potential of indoor mapping to locate people inside large or complex buildings, guide responders directly to an incident and help protect firefighters working in smoke-filled or unfamiliar environments. Brooks also discusses the importance of accurate, specialist mapping data for control rooms, emergency call handling and frontline teams.

From locating callers who cannot describe where they are to improving shared situational awareness across multiple agencies, the episode considers how better location intelligence could help emergency services make quicker, more informed decisions when every second counts.

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