LAS VEGAS – March 22, 2016. Experts today raised a number of issues with the progress being made by the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), although they stressed that they want the entity to succeed. During a session this afternoon at the IWCE show here, Joe Hanna, a consultant and former local public safety official and Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International president, said that FirstNet has been hindered, especially in its first two years, by excessive oversight by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, where FirstNet is housed as an independent entity. But he said that it has made “tremendous strides” in the last two years as it has become more independent, although “not as independent as I would like to see it.”
Mr. Hanna, however, took issue with some matters concerning FirstNet’s request for proposals (RFP), including the length of time it took to release it. “There are a number of major players who should be in this … bid process who will not be in the process because of some of the requirements,” Mr. Hanna also said, “and I think that’s unfortunate.”
“I think there is a fundamental lack of understanding in terms of how … potential commercial partners do their business,” he added. A key issue is that the RFP is out now just as the FCC is about to commence its incentive auction. “The timing on this was not really optimal,” he sai
Mr. Hanna also said that FirstNet is hampered in attracting talent by the relatively low federal salaries, and he also complained about rules that prevent FirstNet staff and board members from communicating with outside parties during its procurement. Other issues he identified: a failure to define the user base, the impact on the value of being a FirstNet partner by states that opt-out of having FirstNet build radio access networks, a “draconian” penalty clause for failing to reach a user goal, and a potential difficulty in getting enough Band 14 user devices.
Bill Schrier, Washington state’s FirstNet single point of contact (SPOC) and chair of the state’s Interoperability Executive Committee, praised FirstNet for not issuing an RFP with “a thousand detailed specifications.” Mr. Schrier, who is also chief information officer for the Seattle Police Department, predicted that most states will not opt-out of having FirstNet build their RANs. He added that states with smaller geographic sizes and population density are not likely to want to opt-out and predicted “that opt-out states can’t make money … and will fall behind technologically.”
But he said a “big hurdle” is not states opting out but adoption, saying many agencies might be reluctant to move from a commercial carrier to FirstNet. “FirstNet has to offer equal or less price and better coverage. That’s going to be very hard,” he said. Mr. Schrier also predicted that if a Republican wins the White House, he could impose particular scrutiny on FirstNet, seeing it as a Democratic project. He also suggested that if a non-carrier wins the RFP contract, it could be problematic for FirstNet, although he noted that tech companies such as Google, Inc., Amazon, Inc., and Microsoft Corp. have loads of money and might be able to deploy a network
Michael Britt, a consultant and former FirstNet program manager for the state of Arizona, suggested that FirstNet should be in a building phase by now, “not in the RFP phase.” He suggested that one solution to speed progress would be to prioritize deployment in certain areas, such as focusing on urban communities first or de-emphasizing early on provisions such as applications or push-to-talk capability
But an audience member, Fred Scalera, public safety broadband manager for the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, suggested that the presentations at the session were too much “doom and gloom.” “I think there’s more positive,” he added. For example, he said, he doesn’t think the outcome of the election would create problems for FirstNet.- Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com
Courtesy TRDaily