The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) board today approved the release of a final request for proposals (RFP), which officials said they would release early next month in a step hailed as historic. Meeting in Houston on December 10, FirstNet Chief Executive Officer Mike Poth also announced that each of the senior managers who had been serving in an acting capacity has now been made permanent. “This is a landmark board meeting,” board Chairwoman Sue Swenson said of the RFP. “This is a significant event that I think we’ll all remember.”

Board Vice Chairman Jeff Johnson discussed the years of public safety advocacy in Washington that led to the approval of the RFP. “I’m proud of the work this board has done,” he said. “We ended up with an outstanding product.” Later in the day, at the open portion of a meeting of the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC), Mr. Johnson declared, “This is historic, by any measure.”

Other board members also praised the effort that led to the RFP. FirstNet’s goal had been to release the RFP by the end of this year, but Mr. Poth told reporters on a conference call after the meeting that it will be released early next month instead ”in deference to industry so that everyone can plan accordingly, if they so choose, for holiday breaks.” He said the RFP would be released “no later than the second week” of January. Mr. Poth noted that board members meeting in committees spent about seven hours yesterday discussing the RFP (TRDaily, Dec. 8). Board members also met for about an hour today in closed session to discuss it.

“For the next two weeks, we’re incorporating the final decisions that the board made over the last couple of days … into the documents,” Mr. Poth said. He also said that in the next couple of weeks, FirstNet plans to announce a webinar to discuss the RFP and timeline following its release.

FirstNet President TJ Kennedy and Mr. Poth said FirstNet worked to keep the RFP to a manageable length to make it easier for prospective entities that might submit proposals. The document runs 508 pages, but that includes 26 attachments that total 339 pages, including a 100-page FCC interoperability report that has been out for years.

Mr. Kennedy noted that a document on pricing runs only seven pages. “I think at the end of the day, even though this is a big document, I think it’s very manageable,” he said. “And we’ll also be looking at the page count for the responses, so that we have very manageable responses.”

“We do have, we think, a pretty lean proposal,” Mr. Poth said, “so our hope and intent is that the offerors will be able to quickly go through the RFP.”

After the RFP is released, entities will have about three weeks to submit questions. FirstNet will then have 30 days to respond to questions. Entities can submit capability statements if they want. Proposals will be due in the May timeframe, and FirstNet hopes to work through the evaluation process during calendar year 2016 with an award and contract in place by the end of the year. The schedule is “aggressive,” but “very doable,” Mr. Kennedy said.

During today’s meeting, board member Neil Cox urged management to shorten the length of their evaluation of proposals so the network can be deployed more quickly.

Mr. Poth replied that management would make a commitment to try to accelerate the evaluation period while not shortening the time that industry has to respond to the RFP. “There will be opportunities to possibly accelerate the evaluation period depending on the number of final offerors,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Board member Kevin McGinnis said he is pleased that FirstNet is giving vendors an opportunity to submit capability statements in advance of their proposals to allow them to make any “mid-course corrections” if necessary.

FirstNet officials were asked during the call with reporters about ongoing consultation and communication with states and territories and industry in the wake of the release of the RFP.

Mr. Kennedy said that FirstNet plans to meet with each single point of contact and with state governing bodies to build consultation task teams. He also said that executive consultation meetings will also be held with high-ranking state officials to get governors ready for state plans. As for when state plans are likely to be available, Mr. Kennedy said early 2017.

Mr. Poth said at the meeting that FirstNet understands that “states are getting anxious” for the RFP to be released and state plans to be presented. “We’re getting anxious,” he added. “But we all have to remind ourselves: the statute does set up a process of how we’re going to go about [things], and we’re going as fast as it practically makes [sense].”

“So we’re asking for your patience,” he added. “Just hang tight.”

“We’re starting to hear a lot of states [say,] ‘Well, we’ve got to get going now.’ And we feel that urgency,” Mr. Poth said. However, officials said communications with vendors would be restricted once the RFP is released, other than information that is public or the voluntary submission of capability statements.

As for whether next year’s elections would impact FirstNet’s work, Mr. Poth said no impact is expected on the federal level. However, he said “there may be some stutter steps with, you know, working with the governors in the states that may be changing hands.” He said that after this year’s election, FirstNet has seen some governors who are leaving referring FirstNet representatives to transition teams for their successors.

Public safety and industry entities praised today’s FirstNet action. “I’d like to congratulate FirstNet’s staff and Board for achieving this important milestone,” said Brent Lee, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International. “I look forward to continuing progress on this much-needed network for public safety.”

James Reid, senior vice president-government affairs for the Telecommunications Industry Association, said, “We commend the FirstNet Board for approving the release of an RFP for the build out of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network. The proposal will be a major milestone in this first-of-its-kind wireless network and we look forward to continuing to work with FirstNet as this public-private partnership takes shape.”

Also during today’s meeting, Mr. Poth announced that several FirstNet leaders who had essentially been serving in an acting capacity are now permanent. They are Mr. Kennedy, Chief Counsel Jason Karp, Chief Technology Officer Jeff Bratcher, and Chief Financial Officer Kim Farington. He also announced the hiring of Chief Procurement Officer David Dasher, who previously was director-procurement for the Internal Revenue Service.

“I think my team can beat anyone,” said Mr. Poth, who said he reviewed about 200 candidates for the top jobs since being hired in August before deciding that those serving in acting capacities were the most qualified.

Mr. Poth had the senior leaders stand behind him at today’s meeting as he made his announcement. “They’re going to be here for the next hour – not moving,” he joked.

In other personnel news, Eli Veenendaal, an attorney-adviser, is interim board secretary, replacing Uzoma Onyeije, who is counsel in the Office of Chief Counsel.

Also, Ryan Oremland has been promoted from acting communications director to communications director and Jacque Miller, former deputy chief information officer for the state of New Mexico, has been hired by FirstNet to be the Region VI lead.

Also at today’s meeting, the board approved minor updates to the charters of its committees. Mr. Karp said the changes were “mostly ministerial.”

The board also heard presentations on the deployment of an early-builder public safety broadband network in Harris County, which includes Houston, and the surrounding area. Houston is the nation’s fourth-largest city and Harris County is the third-largest county.

The network currently has 18 operational sites in Harris County, Texas, and one site in Brazos County, Texas, which is part of an extended range test site, according to Shing Lin, director-public safety technology services for Harris County. Mobile units are up and running, and plans call for the 37-site mobile coverage to be completed by the summer of 2016, he said. That deployment is fully funded with $5.8 million from Harris County. Portable coverage will follow with more than 60 sites. A strategy also is underway to deploy non-mission-critical voice over LTE. – Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily