As you can see from the subject line we are still experimenting with our title. It now appears as though “Advocate” is a word a number of newer spam filters don’t like for some reason but we will keep trying and hopefully find a title that won’t hang up in any of your spam filters! Meanwhile, our subscriber base keeps growing and with it the number of emails we receive with comments and questions. Some emails are from people who doubt FirstNet will ever succeed, but recently many more are from people who have seen progress and are looking forward to FirstNet’s next steps. And then there are those who continue looking ahead to a time when the network is up and operational so their questions have to do with that phase of the operation.
This week one of the questions I thought was worth repeating here will hopefully elicit an answer from someone within the FirstNet community. A member of a state organization asked, “Not sure if you saw the article this week about 911 telephone providers and the FCC not releasing information on the number and duration of 911 outages because some of the information contained proprietary vendor information. Based on what I’ve seen from FirstNet so far I have serious concerns about FirstNet’s transparency and reporting of outages to users. What level of transparency and reporting do you think we will see from FirstNet on system reliability and restoration times? We provide continuous system status updates to the users of our statewide 800 system which we consider critical for a public safety grade system. Today during emergencies, we get little to no information on cell site and circuit outages from the major providers. Without this information from FirstNet in almost real-time it will be hard [to] put a lot of faith into FirstNet for primary voice communications. Maybe you could touch on this in the LMR to LTE webinar.”
I think this is a great question to be answered by the folks at FirstNet, the only thing I am not sure of is if it can be answered before the FirstNet/Public Safety partner has been chosen. But let’s see what response we get from the folks at FirstNet. I am sure this issue has been discussed at great length as they have moved forward.
FCC Auctions 1001 and 1002 Or as we have come to know them, the 600-MHz auctions. The first was the reverse auction (Auction 1001) in which TV stations that are to be relocated or cease operations (their choice) had an opportunity to tell the FCC how much money they expect to receive from the forward auction (Auction 1002) where the bidders will be incumbents and/or new organizations looking to bid on this spectrum for providing commercial broadband service. The total amount the TV stations say they want to move off the 126 MHz of 600-MHz spectrum is a whopping $86.4 Billion! (Remember, this spectrum was not purchased by any of these TV stations. They did not pay a penny for it and now it appears they expect the forward auction bidders to make them rich—oops, I guess that is an editorial comment!) In any event, if you do the math, each TV station holds a license for 6 MHz of spectrum in a given area. To come up with a nationwide clearing of that TV channel requires that all of the TV stations agree to move or clear the spectrum. If we look at the math for the reverse auction, the 126 MHz of spectrum equates to 21 TV channels. So to clear any TV channel nationwide the stations are asking for more than $4 billion per 6-MHz channel. Turning that around for the forward auction where the spectrum will be divided into segments, most bidders will be looking to obtain at least a 10 by 10-MHz swath of spectrum or 20 MHz. 20 MHz of spectrum is equal to 1.66 TV channels for the uplink and 1.66 TV channels for the downlink. So simply to pay off the TV stations for that 20 MHz of spectrum the bidding will have to start above $13 Billion.
It is interesting to note that prior to the reverse auction completion, some of the existing commercial operators thought they would be able to purchase a 10X10 block for around $10 Billion. It now appears as if the forward auction prices will have to be considerably higher and could seriously affect the number of contenders willing to bid for the spectrum. I have to think that if we had these numbers before the FirstNet RFP was released there might have been a few more responses to that RFP as the value of the FirstNet spectrum, even for secondary use, would perhaps be considered a more viable option. Those who did submit a bid to become a partner with FirstNet/Public Safety should be feeling pretty good about having responded to the RFP about now.! Have a Great Week, Andy Seybold
FirstNet Bid Update – Marching Forward – Safer Buildings Coalition via Google Alerts Jul 8 04:30 The window for bidding in the First Responder Network Authority’s request for proposals …
Coordinating cybersecurity efforts between 911 and FirstNet promises to be critical for public safety – Urgent Communications via Google Alerts Jul 7 22:20 Cybersecurity promises to be a major challenge for public safety as it …
Connecting With the Public Safety Community Through Social Media – DigitalGov via Google Alerts Jul 7 15:01 This is the type of power that FirstNet aims to bring to the public safety community through the nationwide public safety broadband network. FirstNet is …
GCI to pay $2.4 million in FCC settlement over 911 outages – Alaska Dispatch News via Google Alerts Jul 6 21:45 In some cases, 911 calls were directed to the cellular phones of Village Public Safety Officers the first line of law enforcement in many villages …
FirstNet Official Details Customer Service Functions – National Public Safety Telecommunications Council – npstc via Google Alerts Jul 6 20:30 July 1, 2016–Rich Reed, who has been selected as the First Responder Network Authority’s (FirstNet) new chief customer officer, today discussed the …
Federal Communications Commission – Facebook via Google Alerts Jul 6 19:01 The FCC is helping public safety agencies that operate along the Canadian border to improve cross-border communications, which will support them …
FirstNet prepares for deployment of nationwide public safety broadband network – Homeland Preparedness News via Google Alerts Jul 6 08:20 The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) moved forward on Friday with its preparations for a public-private partnership to deploy and operate …
FirstNet Weekly Update to the Public Safety Advisory Committee – National Public Safety Telecommunications Council – npstc via Google Alerts Jul 6 04:30 FirstNet Weekly Update to the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) …
FirstNet must balance transparency, security goals during upcoming talks with state, public-safety … – Urgent Communications via Google Alerts Jul 5 17:20 … phase for FirstNet, which then has deliver the nationwide public-safety broadband network that first-responder officials have anticipated for so long.
Improving Collaboration Across Federal, State, and Local Agencies During Emergencies – HSToday via Google Alerts Jul 5 16:40 FirstNet, the broadband network dedicated for use by public safety agencies across the country, and the biggest infrastructure project taken on by the …
First Responders: How States, Localities And The Federal Government Are Working Together To … – azagimqy.ru via Google Alerts Jul 4 22:00 15 years of the CFO Act : what is the current state of federal …
FirstNet Approves PSAC, Boulder Facility Resolutions, Details Customer, Network Offices – National Public Safety Telecommunications Council – npstc via Google Alerts Jul 1 04:30 Two First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) committees today approved …
FirstNet Takes Action to Prepare Organization, Network for Successful Public-Private Partnership – FirstNet via Google Alerts Jul 1 02:05 (CHICAGO) The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) is moving …
Huawei’s To Launch Commercial NB-IoT Solution By 2016 – M2MCafe via Google Alerts Jul 8 00:50 Huawei has once again proved its commitment towards turning IoT into a basic service by announcing the launch of its end-to-end Narrow-band IoT …
Harris : Patent Issued for Communication System with Narrowband Interference Mitigation and … – 4-Traders via Google Alerts Jul 7 21:16 By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Telecommunications Weekly — From Alexandria, Virginia, VerticalNews journalists report that a patent by the …
Liberal Lawmakers Seek Strong FCC Privacy Rules for the Always-Connected Era – Bloomberg BNA via Google Alerts Jul 7 20:35 Strong data breach notification requirements are likely to be included in the FCCs final broadband user privacy rules. The FCCs approach is …
Mushroom Networks brings its ‘Broadband Bonding’ technology to video surveillance – SecurityInfoWatch via Google Alerts Jul 7 20:20 Essentially, Akin says they discovered some of their public safety customers were using their Truffle product, which is a rack mountable server device …
News & Events – EIT Digital via Google Alerts Jul 7 18:55 Aalto University, in collaboration with Ericsson Research and EIT Digital, has successfully implemented a prototype for Narrowband Internet of Things …
Oversight Of The National Telecommunications And Information Administration And Innovations In … – bahiqauzu.ru via Google Alerts Jul 7 18:20 Oversight Of The National Telecommunications And Information Administration And Innovations In Interoperability: Hearing Before The Subcommittee …
Thune Blasts Wheeler for Disclosure of Nonpublic Information, Politicizing FCC – Morning Consult via Google Alerts Jul 7 15:10 The South Dakota Republican said that the FCC’s net neutrality rules as well as Wheeler’s broadband privacy and cable set-top box proposals show …
ONAP, FCC announce free broadband training for tribes – Native Times via Google Alerts Jul 7 13:20 The FCC’s Office of Native Affairs and Policy (ONAP), Consumer and …
Texas Public Safety Broadband Program – UHV Calendar – University of Houston-Victoria via Google Alerts Jul 7 08:35 Meeting people regarding the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), and the Texas Public …
Paving the path to Narrowband 5G with LTE IoT – presentations via Google Alerts Jul 7 03:00 Paving the path to Narrowband 5G with LTE Internet of Things (IoT) Qualcomm Technologies 2 IoT a massive surge of smart, interconnected …
Republicans Attack More FCC Regs In Finance Bill – Broadcasting & Cable via Google Alerts Jul 7 00:05 Democrats tried to block FCC-targeted efforts, but were rebuffed. Republicans even added the FCC’s broadband CPNI proposal to the list of actions …
Association of Public Safety Communications Officials Conference – Numerex via Google Alerts Jul 6 23:01 Association of Public Safety Communications Officials Conference. Loading Events. All Events. Association of Public Safety Communications …
CAUSE IV – Lessons Learned From the U.S. Canadian Cross-Border Experiment – Newswise via Google Alerts Jul 6 14:01 The first, led by DRDC CSS, focused on establishing a public safety broadband network (PSBN) for emergency responders crossing the U.S.-Canada …
Incentive Auction Update; Foreign Ownership Enforcement; Robocalls; FirstNet Resolutions … – The National Law Review via Google Alerts Jul 5 22:30 Last week the Board of Directors of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) met in Chicago, Illinois and adopted resolutions approving a new …
FCC Will Measure Mobile Broadband Performance – Civil Attorney Team via Google Alerts Jul 5 06:00 FCC said it wants to measure mobile broadband service performance to provide comparisons and analyses that are valuable to consumers and spur …
End-to-End NB-IoT Solution by Huawei to go commercial by December 2016 – Indiantelevision.com via Google Alerts Jul 1 08:50 NEW DELHI: An end-to-end Narrow-band IoT (NB-IoT) Solution developed by Huawei to help global operators expand their IoT services into new …
Italy gets EU go-ahead on national broadband plan – Total Telecom Jul 1 06:01 European Commission rules Italian plan will not distort competition nor inhibit private investment