As it happens I am both a Firefighter and an IT professional that works in an industry that relies heavily on the collection of remote data across a wide geographic area and using a variety of communications technologies to get it.
In my opinion there seems to be enough blame to go around, and as much as I personally think the repeal of net neutrality was a mistake, I don't see this being a case for or against it.
On one side Verizon screwed up. There has been an admission that they have a policy in place & it was not followed. Smack a wrist or two and move on.
On the other side, building a critical function like a Mobile Command Center application that requires 1) the internet and 2) a cellular data connection is beyond even the farthest reach of the word asinine. If this application truly is that "mission critical" then there should be some demotions / firings in the Santa Clara County IT Department, FPD, and Emergency Management because obviously NO ONE vetted this system properly.
During any large scale disaster either natural or man made - anyone with more than 2 brain cells to rub together (or an ounce of real world experience) would know that privately held communications systems are one of the first things to fail and should NEVER be the SOLE link in a critical communications path.
I can guarantee you that the FPD does not rely on a cellular provider as the sole primary means of day to day alerting, communications, etc. I feel quite sure they have their own radio system run on govt owned equipment and that even if cellular was a component of day to day ops, that the system would still function without it. So why would you put MORE reliance on a specific technology during MAJOR events when you don't day to day?
My advice to them would be to add a couple more radio frequencies to their license and start doing Ethernet over Radio to their own internal network and use it's connection to the internet and have cellular available as a backup link.
