FirstNet News
The FirstNet Board and executive team held the Quarterly Board Meeting last week in Sacramento, California. Discussion addressed the major steps in the evolution of FirstNet as an operational entity and meeting the objectives for initial deployment of the FirstNet Network. FirstNet leadership focused on the critical work to be completed during the first 100 days post-RFP award on network design and technology roadmaps, the State Plans portal, and other network components.
The PSAC also held their winter in-person meeting in Sacramento last week. Chair Sue Swenson and Vice Chair Jeff Johnson gave opening remarks, commemorating PSAC Chair Chief (Ret.) Harlin McEwen’s service to the PSAC and FirstNet. President TJ Kennedy and CCO Rich Reed led a discussion with members about the importance of engaging their associations at this juncture in FirstNet’s progress, and the vital role the PSAC will play in the future. Additionally, the PSAC User Profiles task team met to work towards finalizing recommendations around “Day 1” profile attributes.
FirstNet has completed 47 State Governance Body Consultation Meetings with a meeting in Kentucky last week. On Tuesday, FirstNet briefed the Kentucky Wireless Interoperability Executive Committee in Frankfort. Discussion focused on the next phase of FirstNet and the State Plan process.
Also on Tuesday, FirstNet staff and the Minnesota SPOC team met with the Red Lake Nation Tribal Council in Red Lake to provide a FirstNet update and answer questions from the Council and community members. There were a number of questions about the FirstNet Network, with cost and coverage being of particular interest to the tribe.
FirstNet also attended the Association of Air Medical Services’ Air Medical Transport Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. FirstNet staff spoke to the group’s Board of Directors on Tuesday and briefed a breakout group on Wednesday.
Last week, FirstNet posted two new blog posts: Why FirstNet is Needed Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and PSAC Profile: International City/County Management Association (ICMA). All blog posts are available on the FirstNet blog at: www.firstnet.gov/newsroom/blog.
News from the PSAC, States and Territories
Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) is excited to announce the release of the NIST Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program Funding Opportunity to rapidly accelerate research and development related to public safety broadband communications. Through this opportunity, PSCR anticipates awarding up to $30,000,000 in grants and cooperative agreements by May 2017. The funding opportunity is open to all non-Federal entities. In addition, applicants are strongly encouraged to partner with public safety organizations to create innovative and impactful proposals. For more information, please visit PSCR’s grants page: https://www.nist.gov/ctl/pscr/funding-partnerships/grants. The funding opportunity can also be found on Grants.gov: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=290542.
Media Watch
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Urgent Communications 12/13: FirstNet Preparing Network Policies for Nationwide Contractor, Opt-Out States
FirstNet’s technical staff has established a draft set of network policies that will be followed throughout the United States, whether the radio access network (RAN) is deployed by FirstNet’s nationwide contractor or by opt-out states, FirstNet officials said today.
Web and Social Media
FirstNet’s social media presence grew at the normal rate this week. Twitter gained 27 new followers, now at 4,712. Facebook has 550 followers. LinkedIn now has 1,795 followers. YouTube has 367 subscribers.
Do you have something you want to feature in the weekly update, such as a conference date, personnel announcement, or news article showcasing the work of your organization? Please send it to PSAC@firstnet.gov for possible inclusion in an upcoming update.