Podcast – How 5G Technology Propels Emergency Response

In this podcast episode of Domestic Preparedness: The Podcast, host Nicolette Casey Phillips speaks with David Brossett and Robert Edwards from Ericsson. They discuss how 5G technology is powering connected first responder vehicles and mobile command centers and transforming real-time situational awareness for first responders. This conversation was recorded on May 28, 2025, during the Texas Emergency Management Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Nicolette Casey Phillips

Hello and welcome to Domestic Preparedness: The Podcast, where we bring you the voices of preparedness. I am your host, Nicolette Casey Phillips, and, in this episode, we are diving into the critical issues of the emergency preparedness field. We are talking to leaders in the field, experienced practitioners, and dedicated officials who are shaping policies and practices to strengthen community preparedness across the country.

Today, I am speaking with David Brossett and Robert Edwards from Ericsson, a leader in advanced communication solutions. We are taking a closer look at how Ericsson’s 5G technology is powering connected first responder vehicles and mobile command centers. These tools are transforming the field and giving responders the real-time situational awareness they need to act fast and stay safe. So, I really thank you for what you all do. I think it’s really important and necessary.

David Brossette

Yeah, it’s kind of strange, you know, the Ericsson name is kind of new for what we’ve done traditionally as Cradlepoint because people really kind of know what a Cradlepoint is. It’s a device that allows you to connect to cellular networks and then provide either Wi-Fi bubble or direct connection to your other equipment. And Ericsson purchased Cradlepoint about five years ago, and over the last two years, we’ve really started using the Ericsson name in the actual territories and stuff. So, Ericsson is not new to it. Cradlepoint is not new to it. But the combination is new, and so we have a lot of education to do on that.

Phillips

Now, when you say combination, what exactly do you mean?

Brossette

So, Ericsson has always been a leader in cellular technology. Over 50% of every tower that provides a 5G signal is an Ericsson tower.

Phillips

Okay.

Brossette

And they purchased Cradlepoint about five years ago to get the other side of the business. I want the devices that are receiving it to be Ericsson devices. So, they purchased Cradlepoint, and they’ve transitioned us from the Cradlepoint name now to using the Ericsson name primarily. So it’s a transition. All our customers walk in and say, okay, what’s the new Cradlepoint? Here’s the new Ericsson, and it’s the same deal. It’s just one of those things that happens when you get big boys.

Phillips

Yeah. Okay. When we’re big time.

Robert Edwards

Yeah. And I would say when people think of Ericsson, they might think of a lot of different things. They might think of those old Sony Ericsson phones we had 15 years ago.

Phillips

Guilty.

Edwards

Obviously, I knew about Ericsson from a cellular tower perspective, and then Cradlepoint was the router. And the thing is, a lot of the first responders today utilize Cradlepoints. I’m going to still call them that for a connection point. So, think of a vehicle as like an office on wheels where they have their computer; they type in their notes; they have a database they connect to; they have all these devices that connect; and they need a point of entry for those devices.

Phillips

Well, that’s right. I remember when I first got into emergency preparedness, a lot of the CLOs who are out in the field, they did say, you know, my office is in a car. I literally work in a vehicle. So, yeah, imagining that, I mean, what do you do if this isn’t something that we use?

Brossette

Right. And it’s transitioned to such a point now where it’s not only something that’s needed, but it’s something that you can’t live without.

Phillips

Okay.

Brossette

And that’s why most of our deployments now are actually involving two different sims, two different carriers. We have situations where I’m going out in the middle of nowhere, and it might be a T-Mobile, might be a Verizon or AT&T or FirstNet might be the better signal, but I’m driving across the county, and I cannot be disconnected. So, I’ll have both those in the Ericsson router to allow that. And then the deployment that we did last year with TDEM, we had a third source of Internet, which was a satellite, which was one of those low-orbit satellite providers. So, we have two 5G radios with two divergent different connections, so they can have the best 5G connection. But if you go to Big Bend National Forest and you get nothing, then the low-orbit satellite kicks in so there’s continuous 100% coverage. So, we work outside of just our products with other products to provide that 100% coverage for first responders.

Phillips

Wonderful, now, how do responders typically use these systems in their first few minutes on the scene?

Brossette

Well, first ones on the scene, they’re really rallying. It’s really like a rally point thing. Some of the people come in and they say, “Okay, we now have AT&T and FirstNet provided this mobile communications system, and we’re going to connect to this Ericsson or Cradlepoint. And, we’re just going to send out a nice big Wi-Fi signal. So, here’s the Wi-Fi. Here’s for your phone. Here’s how you log into the Wi-Fi so everyone can communicate at the same time.” So, usually, it’s really the rally point before they start doing assignments and having them go actually respond.

Edwards

I’ll add to that. So, I would also say one of the first things that may happen is a remote third party—let’s say it’s the office or dispatch—might look at what’s going on the live video feed.

Phillips

Okay.

Edwards

So, one of the distinctions here is that you need Internet access all the time for a database for criminal records. But you may need the ability for someone, a third party, to look and see what’s going on live, right? So that may be a very important piece of it as well.

Brossette

That is a big part of it. A lot of times when we’re deploying systems that allow the camera systems and the police cars to work. Maybe the Axon video system or Watch Guard or whatever that is, they’ll want, they have an officer going out in the middle of nowhere. And they’ll point the car toward the house, turn on livestream so they can watch the officer knock on the door and serve a warrant.

Phillips

Oh wow.

Brossette

So, they can make sure that that went successfully and there was nothing occurring, or they can dispatch other people if there’s any problems. So, there’s all kinds of livestream videos applications that are there now that really weren’t available in 3G and 4G. But now with 5G being prevalent, we can provide much more data-centric applications that improve officer safety and provide visibility throughout the whole organization.

Phillips

Okay.

Edwards

And some are starting to utilize drones as well. So, connectivity for that drone, for all the devices within that vehicle. Let’s say it’s a license plate reader. Let’s say it’s obviously connected to a database. Let’s say it’s, it could be a number of different things, right?

Brossette

Yeah, and the drones are big. They’re deploying drones now before officers respond to an event. So, I know in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, there’s a couple of deployments of drones where, when an accident happens on the major freeway, the drone can get there in 10 minutes. It takes officers 20 minutes to get there, but the drone will say, “By the way, these southbound lanes are blocked. So, I need to go past it.” And some get and respond to the accident faster just because of the connectivity to the drone and it’s having visibility of what’s actually happening on the scene.

Phillips

That’s wonderful. When did the drones get introduced to the picture?

Edwards

It seems like in the last couple of years.

Brossette

They’ve gotten more affordable than before it was, you know, a “Big Brother must be big government thing.” But now drones are becoming part of almost all the. We work a lot with the video providers, the Axons, the Watch Guards of the world. Now, when they’re going in and talking to organizations about using the video, they’re talking about a body cam. They’re talking about having the vehicle cameras for the traffic stops. But they’re also talking about drones at the same time. It’s a three-tiered solution that they’re selling to them now.

Edwards

And I would say it’s something last couple of years that’s starting to take off. And, if you’re not doing it today, you’re probably looking at doing it.

Phillips

Yeah. Now, what’s on the horizon? We’re talking drones. What’s next in your opinion?

Brossette

Satellite.

Edwards

Yeah, exactly. Adding satellite as that third connection or second connection for ultimate redundancy of Internet access.

Brossette

Right. And you know, you get in situations where a hurricane comes in or something happens and you are down to texting and calling, and the satellite can do that easily. No matter what happened on the ground, they can continue to communicate through the satellite.

Edwards

Yeah, absolutely.

Brossette

And it’s not something we sell, but it is the part of the total solution. We’ll provide the 5G router. We’ll provide the ability to connect to multiple sources. But then, you know, it’s, you know, we don’t care if you have a feeling that your part of the woods, that Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile is better, or you need to use satellite. We’re here just to provide the platform, and we’re kind of like Switzerland. We’re like, what’s best for you? And what? How’s this work for your organization?

Phillips

Okay. So, it really depends on what’s needed.

Brossette

And where you are in the state.

Phillips

Now, can you share any examples of how this technology is being used in Texas specifically?

Brossette

So, they have a redundant system that allows them to communicate if their fiber gets cut. If their primary Internet gets cut, then they go to cellular, and they’re able to continue to communicate from building to building and from TDEM office to TDEM office—just using a secondary connection through cellular. So, they have, of course, the high-speed fiber coming in everywhere else, but when an emergency happens, that stuff goes down because a backhoe hit it or because a hurricane came through. We’re able to continue to communicate in the buildings with these branch routers.

Edwards

Yeah, so they have emergency response vehicles. They go out to a location where an emergency is occurring. They have the ability to get connectivity, they have multiple sources of Internet, and they can help out whenever needed.

Brossette

And we put in all kinds of parameters, say, if for any reason the cellular LTE 5G signal gets below this, we’re going to satellite because we do not want to lose communication throughout that entire response. So, 85 of those vehicles were deployed, and we’re looking at that, and a lot of people are copying that. A lot of people in these rural counties, they want to have cellular, but they also want to have low-orbit satellite as their failover.

Edwards

Yeah, cause there are areas within the state of Texas that have not very good coverage from a cellular perspective. So, when they’re out in west Texas, in the middle of nowhere, they can attend to the emergency and still have connectivity, even if it wasn’t because a tower went down. It could just be because there is a lack of coverage.

Phillips

Okay, wow. Definitely essential because we know communication is everything in this field.

Edwards

Absolutely, yeah.

Phillips

So y’all make this happen. This is the fruit of what y’all do. Incredible.

Edwards

Yeah.

Brossette

Yeah, and you know, it’s no one, we don’t have any Ericsson–Cradlepoint projects. No one says, “You know what? This week I want to buy a brand-new router.” What happens is “I’ve got this video project. I’ve got this drone project. I’ve got this license plate recognition thing I need to do to make my community safer.” And, by the way, the big portion of making that successful is the connection back, the high-speed connection back. So we get pulled in as the highway, the connectivity to allow all these high-impact projects to work. But people don’t say “I want to buy a router.” What they say is, you know, “I need dash cam. I need body cam for our officers. I need license plate recognition so I can see if bad people who have warrants are in my neighborhood.” But we then get pulled in to make that happen. That’s our job is to fill the gap.

Edwards

Yeah, I’m gonna put out something, and I’m gonna say, why would someone utilize something like one of our routers in a vehicle? Versus just “Hey, I’ve got a cell phone, why don’t I just use that?” And the reality is there’s a huge security risk. If you just had each individual device have its own Internet connection, you have a lot of risk. And so, when you look at deploying our security routers—they’re very security oriented—you can mitigate some of that risk by enabling firewall functionality or if you get our advanced license, IPS IDS [Intrusion Prevention System and Intrusion Detection System]. So, if someone tries to maliciously attack that device or any devices behind it, there’s some security protection there. That’s one thing. From a security perspective, this really assists with not getting hacked.

Brossette

Right. And we still run into customers today that have old, you know, dongle based, you know, “I must stick this little hockey puck thing on the side of my computer to make it give it connectivity.” And, you know, the difference is when you have an appliance like we have that all of the horsepower is there for the communication and the security; it’s all built into it. So that, you know, you use a laptop with a SIM card. You can put a SIM card in almost any laptop now and it gets communication. But that processor and those things that are happening inside of there, 95% of that has nothing to do with connectivity and securing that connectivity. When you have a purpose-built router that only does that, then we can keep a lot of bad things happening. And we can communicate a lot quicker and at a lot better speeds than those other solutions.

Phillips

Wonderful. Now, how or what role do these command centers play in keeping information flowing between field and command?

Brossette

You can walk around. You see these SUVs, these RVs, and all these antennas sticking up, and they have satellite antennas, everything up. They can be on site and they can be just as productive now as someone back at the command center trying to call in commands and tell them where to go and what to look and what to see. Those devices, they all have 10 computers, and they’ll have 3 satellites, and they’ll have the connectivity to be able to actually have these site-based decisions that are effective and that’s the beauty of it.

Edwards

One of the features they really need that’s necessary for them is dispatch, right? So, they need an accurate GPS location, and then they need to send that location and track that vehicle wherever it is. And, so, dispatch can say, okay, they’re coming on the scene—whatever that scene is, right—and so that’s a huge piece of what they need to implement.

Brossette

You’ll even see some of these that are ambulance buses. They’re buses able to take a, you know, 20-25 people in stretchers back to hospitals for big events, but they’ll also have EKG transmissions. They’ll have X-ray transmissions, so you can actually do a lot of them at the medical analysis on site now with the high-speed connections that are there.

Phillips

Wow. That is incredible. Excellent. Now, we kind of touched on this. What do you think is next in mobile connectivity for emergency response, and is there a breakthrough you think will define the next generation of response tools?

Edwards

Probably network slicing actually is a big one. So, with 5G becoming more prevalent, you have this feature that’s kind of a, I don’t know, underdog feature that people don’t think about called…

Brossette

Baked in. It’s a baked-in feature.

Edwards

It’s baked in, but people don’t think about it. They just think 5G higher speeds. But network slicing is actually a feature that’s part of 5G that gives the ability to prioritize different kinds of traffic. And so, you can actually get an agreement that says your video upload data will get prioritized over everyone else, so it’s almost like…

Brossette

Your 911 calls get prioritized over everyone else. Yeah. And so, they’re even right now, if you walk around the show, both Verizon and T-Mobile have 5G slicing offers to public sector customers that allow them to have their own lane in 5G. In other words, they can be at a Cowboys game at the Jerry’s World. Right? They can be at the Cowboys game with 100,000 people and they will get a portion of 5G just for first responders. So, it doesn’t matter how you go there, they’re going to have that. So, there will be more and more applications that come out with these 5G slices, and that’s a good call.

Edwards

That is a big deal. And we actually had our conversation yesterday around that topic actually. Here’s an easy way to think about it. Think about I-35. You’ve got the HOV lane, right, and you’ve got your normal lanes. It’s like getting in the lane for different kinds of traffic. So you’re like, well, this is important. I’m going to give it its own HOV lane to bypass the congestion of normal I-35 traffic.

Brossette

The cool part is a lot of these offerings. I know the T-Mobile offering and the Verizon offering, if there is a catastrophic event, they actually make that wider. So, you can have more people on that. So, all of a sudden, there are buses that are on it because they’re evacuating people from places, and there are debris people. They actually can make that and respond in a flexible way to make that first-responder-only band bigger during disasters. It’s a really neat offering.

Edwards

And they’re just starting to introduce this. Like Verizon just a couple of weeks ago announced it. So, this is literally leading-edge technology that within the next two years, we’re going to see a lot of it getting deployed.

Brossette

So, if you’re listening to this and you’re a decision maker and you’re trying to figure out the best way to deploy 5G technology with data slicing, you can not only get the higher speeds of 5G, you can get your priority and preemption, and then you can get security, which is great. Part of that standard for 5G data slicing is end-to-end encryption. It’s encrypted from the second it’s sent all the way to the other end. So now you don’t have to choose, “I’m going to go off this one system so I can have a more secure system, or I’m going to go off the system so I can go to 5G, which is a little faster system.” You can now have all three with data slicing. And we don’t make data slicing. We just find a way to support it on the routers. And if your carrier—your T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon—starts to offer that, we can make that happen in conjunction with them.

Phillips

Thank you so much, gentlemen. I am so impressed with Ericsson and the vital very important role they play in communication and how to effectively get to who we need to get to during disasters.

Brossette

Well, thanks for having us here. There’s nothing more fun than working with first responders.

Phillips

Now, that is a wrap for this episode of Domestic Preparedness: The Podcast. And, until next time, stay safe. Stay ready. And thank you for listening.