Police1 recently had the opportunity to visit with T-Mobile’s public safety experts at the 2025 International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Denver. We discussed the importance of staying current with technology and how T-Priority service is keeping first responders mission-ready and continuously connected.
Communication is the backbone of response
When emergencies happen, communication is often the difference between chaos and coordination, data-driven action or indecision and delay. For first responders – whether answering a 911 call, battling a wildfire or managing a citywide event – access to reliable voice and data networks is essential.
But when disasters hit or large crowds gather, wireless networks can quickly become overloaded, slowing or preventing even the most critical communications. That’s where T-Priority steps in, helping to ensure first responders’ communications get through – no matter how busy the network becomes.
Staying connected under pressure
In the aftermath of hurricanes, wildfires and other large-scale emergencies, the demand for bandwidth surges as thousands of people simultaneously try to reach loved ones or access vital information. Even during planned events – like parades, concerts or major sporting events – local networks can become congested. If clogged networks prevent the public from sharing concert videos to social media, it’s an inconvenience. But if first responders don’t have access to critical communications and systems, the situation can quickly escalate into a major incident with life-and-death implications for officers and attendees alike.
T-Mobile developed T-Priority to solve this problem, giving public safety agencies priority and preemption capabilities that keep mission-critical traffic moving, even when the network is strained.
What is T-Priority?
T-Priority not only delivers priority access and preemption across T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G and LTE networks, but with its groundbreaking network slicing technology and 5G standalone (SA) network, also provides up to 5 times more network resources than to the public. The result is a connectivity solution that performs more reliably during a major disaster.
Features that keep responders connected
“Officers just want to make sure everything works,” said Christopher Ortiz, senior solutions engineer, public safety solutions at T-Mobile for Government. “They’re not going to troubleshoot – when seconds matter, there’s an expectation that when connectivity needs to be reliable, things are going to be working.”
T-Priority automatically prioritizes first responder traffic without the need for manual activation. When the network is congested, T-Mobile’s 5G SA slicing technology gives responders’ traffic prioritized data resources for higher throughput, helping to ensure critical information flows freely between the field and command.
“Public safety is getting extremely bandwidth-intensive. Everything they’re depending on today is getting very video- and AI-heavy,” said Ortiz.
To take advantage of modern tools like drones, mission critical push-to-talk (MCPTT) and situational awareness platforms, agencies need more than priority and preemption – agencies need access to the bandwidth and speeds that enable these applications to work.
The advantages of a 5G standalone core and sliced network
T-Priority is the first nationwide slice for public safety on a 5G SA network, providing capabilities beyond conventional 5G networks that rely on 4G LTE infrastructure. The SA core – native 5G architecture independent of older systems – enables advanced features like ultra-low latency, network slicing and dynamic traffic prioritization specifically for first responders.
Bridging the gaps when radios go silent
“Voice is king, collaboration is key,” said Ortiz. “But how do you achieve collaboration when you don’t have network availability and resources?”
The reality is that even traditional land mobile radio systems don’t work in every situation – but emergencies can happen in any situation and across jurisdictional boundaries.
Whether your radio signal is limited by topography, blocked by a skyscraper or the mission takes you outside your regional two-way radio coverage, communication must go on. In the event of a natural disaster that compromises LMR infrastructure, especially when first responders rely most on critical communications, dependable backup solutions are imperative.
T-Priority supports 5G LTE, MCPTT and is even interoperable with satellite connections so first responders have more ways than ever to communicate, access their critical systems and share data.
T-Mobile Direct Connect MCPTT enables land mobile radio interoperability by bridging an agency’s existing LMR system with push-to-talk (PTT) over cellular, explained Scott Wiley, senior product manager, government solutions for T-Mobile for Business.
“Handing out phones is cheaper than handing out additional $6,000 radios,” he said. “Sometimes after a disaster you need to scale up the number of people that need to communicate on a talk group, so you can do that a lot cheaper and quicker with phones. You also get nationwide coverage, whereas LMR networks are built to just cover that city or region.”
The expanse of T-Mobile’s 5G network – reaching 98% of Americans in urban, suburban and rural communities alike – makes MCPTT a great backup system for rural sheriff’s departments, tribal agencies, and other organizations that cover large, rugged areas or areas dense with buildings where LMR alone is sometimes unreliable.
“Now for the first time ever in the industry, you’re going to be able to achieve collaborations that hadn’t been done before and that you can’t even do on a traditional LMR,” said Ortiz. “We’re happy to say we’re the first in the industry to do this and we got ahead of the game because we moved at a rate knowing this is a very important capability for public safety.”
Extending connectivity beyond cell towers with T-Satellite
Another way T-Mobile facilitates collaboration and redundancy is through its satellite-to-mobile network, T-Satellite, which uses more than 650 Starlink satellites to extend coverage to places cell towers can’t reach. It also now supports key apps that provide business-critical communications and productivity.
In the event terrestrial cellular services and LMR networks are impaired, first responders can use PTT over T-Satellite, which allows voice notes to be transmitted over a channel or to single users. Importantly, on compatible devices, first responders can send and receive emergency alerts, weather, send pictures and voice messages on Google Messages and share their location with the push of an emergency button. They can also use third-party apps including Google Maps, WhatsApp and AccuWeather that have been optimized for satellite. T-Mobile makes its APIs public, so a growing number of app developers are adapting their products to operate on T-Satellite.
With over 650 direct-to-cell satellites operating in low earth orbit, T-Mobile leads in reaching areas previously thought out of reach. T-Satellite supports over 75% of phones and connects automatically so first responders don’t have to point their phones at the sky to get a signal.
In addition to the “child lost in the woods remote-area search-and-rescue” scenario for which T-Satellite is ideal, T-Mobile is in trials to deploy towers they are calling “5G on Location.”
“Essentially we can sell the ability for an agency to buy the hardware to deploy their own T-Mobile site. We can bring our own tower, hook it up to the back of our truck and pop up a satellite dish to get back to the network,” said Wiley. “It radiates the T-Mobile network for about 3/4 of a mile, so we can bring our own tower on demand for any kind of incident.”
That limited-range deployable doesn’t provide T-Satellite connectivity but rather uses satellite for backhaul, providing access to T-Mobile’s terrestrial network.
“This mission is really built around what public safety needs. We’ve got to make sure there’s always reliability,” said Ortiz. “What we’re doing with T-Mobile and our partnership with Starlink and T-Satellite is giving that reliability so that when they’re not getting terrestrial coverage, or if network resources aren’t available, they at least have critical applications.”
Intelligent networks are shaping the next generation of public safety
Connectivity doesn’t just power today’s emergency response – it lays the foundation for the future of public safety.
“When I look back five years ago, one of the things that’s changed most is how intelligent networks have become,” said Ortiz. “They recognize what you’re doing, what you’re using and how you’re using it – whether it’s a drone or video upload – to allocate bandwidth and reduce latency.”
T-Priority supports that evolution, providing the bandwidth and reliability needed to enable next-generation technologies.
“A lot of our sales folks are former first responders – retired chiefs of police and captains of fire departments,” said Kenan Brandes, senior product manager for T-Mobile for Government. “They know what it means to provide the critical support that is required.”
With advances like T-Priority, T-Satellite and MCPTT, T-Mobile is focused on providing first responders the mission-critical connectivity they require to keep themselves and the public safe and informed.
“Anytime you’re dealing with a crisis, you’ve got to have a network that can deliver,” said Ortiz.
