Don’t undermine FirstNet, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay...
Don’t undermine FirstNet, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., told Motorola CEO Greg Brown in a letter Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1aa7bJK). His office released the letter Friday and said Rockefeller is “deeply concerned” over media reports of Motorola’s alleged campaign against…
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the public safety broadband network, commissioned by Congress. “I urge you to immediately cease your campaign and to work constructively with the FirstNet board,” Rockefeller told Brown in the letter. In response, a Motorola spokesman said it has heard of the need for a nationwide public safety network from its customers for years and shares those views: “Moreover, we were pleased to join them and dozens of public-safety organizations to support FirstNet.” He called the company “a strong supporter of the legislation that created FirstNet, and the company believes the law that established FirstNet should be implemented to give all public safety end-users fair and reasonable access to this critical resource.” But FirstNet threatens Motorola’s “dominance” as a public safety device and equipment manufacturer, Rockefeller said, pointing to the contrast between Motorola’s public support for FirstNet and reports that it is “financing a public relations and lobbying campaign to erode support for FirstNet’s mission and work.” Rockefeller will not “abide a return to the model of costly, and often proprietary, equipment that our nation’s first responders face in narrowband communications,” he wrote. “This model has led to disparate systems even among public safety agencies in the same jurisdiction.” But the Motorola spokesman said, “Again, our objective is to help make FirstNet a success and enable local first responders to do their jobs more safely and effectively.”