Enabling interoperability between the FirstNet public-safety LTE core being built by AT&T and the LTE cores of Verizon or other carriers is feasible technically, but doing so would be a departure from the FirstNet request for proposals (RFP) and could introduce security issues for public safety, according to an AT&T executive.
“They [FirstNet officials] built the RFP that specified a single nationwide core—you couldn’t have multiple cores,” Chris Sambar, senior vice president of AT&T – FirstNet, said yesterday during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “From a technical standpoint on AT&T’s side, you can get any network to talk to any other network. The question is: What seams do you create, and what security risks do you introduce?