Public Safety Technology Alliance (PSTA) to Shut Down

Urgentcomm, in a release on their website announced that the PSTA has been shut down. But was PSTA really such a success?

“PSTA achieved its mission,” PSTA board member Jeff Johnson said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “In a time where we were transitioning to an LTE entrant into the public-safety community through FirstNet, it was important that we did what we could to maintain open standards and that we caused the conversation [to be conducted within public safety]. I’m extremely satisfied with what we achieved and what standards we were able to get vetted in a broad group of stakeholders.

“That was a great group of people and a lot of good contributors—the bottom line is that it was good for public safety. But all things have their time, and we’ve moved into an era where the tech community has embraced public safety and our need for open standards. Our work here is done, as they say.”

Victoria Lee, who led the management of PSTA operations, echoed this sentiment, noting that multiple public-safety-focused organizations—for example, TCCA, FirstNet, the Public Safety Technology Broadband Association (PSTBA), the National Alliance of Public Safety GIS and the R2 Network—are advocating that public safety leverage open-standards solutions and APIs.

“Basically, everybody out there is really kind of pushing it,” Lee said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “They get it, and that was really the ultimate goal of PSTA.

Some question the success of the PSTA. The fact is, that already in 2019, just few years after the birth of the organization, the PSTA didn't release any news publications or announcements about the progress of the Alliance and it's cooperation with other related entities anymore.

Also the PSTA 'PSN NOW' YouTube channel wasn't really a big hit. The channel produced some 70 videos where former FirstNet Authority Chief Counsel, Jason Karp and CEO TJ Kennedy talked about the week’s public safety news, featuring COVID-19, drones & privacy, repeal of T-band legislation, injured LAFD firefighters, FirstNet, etc. Each episode only received some 30 views and the channel only welcomed 34 subscribers.