Band 14 test sets the stage for Vail and Eagle County, Colorado, to join FirstNet

by Dwight Henninger, Police Chief, City of Vail, Colorado

The resort community of Vail, CO, is a tourist-oriented place. People come to ski and enjoy the summer activities. We probably get 2 million visitors a year here. Plus, with I-70, a major corridor, we have all the issues of an interstate running through the community.

We have about 30 officers to deal with those problems – with another 6 uniform code enforcement officers. We also run the 9-1-1 center for Eagle County. 

In the mountains of Vail Valley and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, we have passes that go over 10,000 feet. The mountains have a significant impact in the way we use our land mobile radios. We could never really rely on our commercial cellular phones in many parts of the community that are off the interstate. So, we were looking for a solution to fix that problem.

We had an opportunity to test Band Class 14 when we hosted the  Alpine World Ski Championships here in Vail and Beaver Creek in 2015.

So, when we had the chance to get on FirstNet – which has exclusive access to the Band 14 spectrum – we jumped on it. So did the Sheriff's department. Since then, many of the other public safety agencies have also joined, because we see that it works when we have these huge shifts in population.

Hear more from Dwight Henninger, Chief of Police, Vail, Colorado at firstnet.com.