If you’ve ever tried to make a call at a busy sporting event, you know how the cell phone network can get jammed up. Now, imagine having that problem if you’re a first responder, trying to get in contact during an emergency.

A nationwide cellular network, called FirstNet, aims to solve that problem.

As Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Lindsey Wright reports, one tragic event in particular led responders to realize they needed better communication tools.

“The 9/11 commission report came out and said public safety needs expanded bandwidth and their own bandwidth, so that was the push to get there.”

David Vice is the executive director of the state’s integrated public safety commission. He says over the years, government officials have worked to improve radio systems for first responders.  They launched FirstNet in 2012.

The 25-year project gives local agencies priority on an AT&T cellular network.

All 50 states opted in to the deal. The city of Noblesville is the first in Indiana to join the FirstNet network. Fire Chief Greg Wyant says the goal is to enhance communication between emergency personnel.

“It’s almost like a separate cellular system. So here’s the public cellular system, here’s our cellular system and we get priority, so it will drop the public before it drops us.”

The more people using a cell tower in a particular area, the more congested it gets. And it can only handle so many concurrent users.

FirstNet assures emergency responders ALWAYS have space, meaning they have priority over public users.

As Wyant climbs his way up into a fire truck, he shows me one of the computers the responders use. He says it made sense for Noblesville to start using FirstNet for a few reasons.

“We’re already using AT&T products across the board of the city, there was no reason to wait. They’re ready for us to sign on, let’s do it.”

But the Noblesville, Hamilton County area also draws significant crowds regularly. There’s Conner Prairie, a popular outdoor museum, and the Ruoff Music Center.

Thousands of music lovers crowd into the venue every summer. Police Chief Kevin Jowitt says, that alone can cause capacity issues, even if it’s not an emergency situation.  

“Concert goers will frequently stream live from a concert, that takes up a lot of bandwidth with a lot of people doing thatm so it really decreases the capablility of other people being able to get on that network and use it.”

AT&T is investing around 40 billion dollars to add new cell towers across the country.

But costs for local agencies should stay about the same if they already use a cell plan. Noblesville Mayor John Ditslear says under FirstNet, the city won’t need any additional funding.

“There are no additional tax dollars going in to get this additional benefit, our rates with AT&T are what they were, but we were just fortunate enough to get this added benefit and would hope others would follow.”

Only a handful of cities around the country are currently participating in the network.

Vice says it’s going to take time for some agencies to transition. He says communications equipment can be a pricey venture and for some it may not be the priority right now.

“There’s a number of agencies that don’t pay for cell phones now for their public safety people. If they’re not doing it now, they’re probably not going to jump on to this right away until they can figure out a mechanism to pay for those opportunities.”

But Noblesville leaders say the need to improve communication between agencies is the reason the network exists. So, others need to get on board for the project to truly succeed.