A report conducted by a team of Penn State researchers has found first responders in Pennsylvania's rural counties - most of the counties in the state - are regularly hampered by communications and technology limitations that threaten public health and safety.
Published by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, the report points to the lack of consistent broadband connectivity as a life-threatening challenge for both Pennsylvania residents and first responders who work in rural counties.
Dead zones and dropped calls provide an ongoing challenge for first responders in rural counties. Other challenges exist in the form of different communications frequencies and incompatible technologies, some of which differ from county to county and sometimes even between agencies or organizations in the same county.
Addressing the challenge poses an expensive problem that Pennsylvania's typically underfunded rural first responders - a combination of emergency medical service (EMS) organizations, often small police departments and largely volunteer fire departments - do not have the ability to solve, according to the report.
