Rochester, NY August 2020 – GE is proud to announce that our MDS Orbit™ 4G LTE router is now FirstNet Ready™ and available for use on FirstNet®, delivering the security and reliability needed by first responders and utilities.

FirstNet is built with AT&T in a public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) – an independent agency within the federal government. It’s designed with and for public safety. With this much-needed technology upgrade, first responders can connect to the critical information they need every day and in every emergency.

The MDS Orbit router, which is FirstNet Ready™, is designed to meet the communication needs of critical infrastructure utilities such as water, gas and electric that support first responders. The MDS Orbit router supports access to the physically separate and dedicated FirstNet network core, FirstNet First Priority® – which includes always-on priority and preemption for first responders – and the FirstNet Band 14 spectrum.

The MDS Orbit platform offers industry leading cyber security and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) compliance to protect critical networks from attack. Dual SIM and dual radio uplinks help minimize network downtime with capabilities such as signal quality based smart auto failover. 

The MDS Orbit router can be configured to support existing licensed or unlicensed spectrum in addition to FirstNet LTE operation with powerful routing and QoS capability to send data over the appropriate link while providing auto failover in the event of a network outage. 

“FirstNet devices and modules go through extensive review, so first responders can be confident that the GE MDS Orbit router meets our highest standards for reliability, security and performance,” said Brenda Kittila, vice president, FirstNet Program at AT&T. “The more tools public safety has access to on their network, the more we can help them achieve their mission.”

“GE is a proud supporter of first responders, and we are excited to be able to offer our MDS Orbit™ 4G LTE router as solution for their mission critical communications.  We have been serving critical infrastructure and utilities for over 30 years.  Now our FirstNet Ready™ device also provides a solution for utilities that support first responders,” said Chris Trabold, general manager, GE Industrial Communications.
Before being certified and approved for use on FirstNet, devices are subject to hundreds of tests that cover a number of aspects, from security to network impacts. This helps make sure that they can meet the needs of first responders. All FirstNet Ready devices are listed on the FirstNet device page.

To learn more about GE and the MDS Orbit router go to GEGridsolutions.com. For more on FirstNet, check out FirstNet.com.