2027 Agenda

For decades, public safety communications planning has started with the radio system. But what happens when voice becomes one application running across a resilient communications network rather than the network itself?

In August 2026, MACC911 brought together more than sixty public safety professionals for a field demonstration of a network-centered communications architecture. Four trunked LMR systems in three states operated on a common talkgroup. Previously unconnected systems joined in minutes. A continuous transmission remained connected as individual broadband paths were removed. Portable radios communicated through vehicle gateways beyond the traditional system footprint, including approximately 4.7 miles during a rural range test.

Not everything worked—and those failures may be as important as the successes.

This session examines the experiment, the architecture behind it, the operational limitations discovered, and the strategic question it raised: Should the next public-safety communications dollar automatically go into LMR infrastructure, or should broadband, satellite, gateways, applications, and LMR compete against the same operational requirements?

Panelists will discuss interoperability, resilience, responder usability, economics, vendor independence, procurement, and a practical path agencies can use to test the concept without committing to a major system replacement.