FirstNet’s Prospects Seen Improving, But Challenges Remain
Recent shifts in the makeup of FirstNet’s board will likely improve its relations with state governments, while other changes within the authority in recent months have significantly improved prospects for success, said participants and observers in interviews last week. The Department of Commerce said earlier this month that it was appointing five new members to FirstNet’s board, and reappointing board member Ed Reynolds. The new members include ex-Vermont Republican Gov. Jim Douglas and Houston Mayor Annise Parker, a Democrat. Salt Lake City Chief of Police Chris Burbank, telecom executive Frank Plastina and Richard Stanek, sheriff of Hennepin County, Minnesota, are also new to the board (CD Sept 5 p13). The board set its first meeting with the new members for Tuesday and Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1uLMJca).
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The addition of Douglas and Parker to the board is likely to improve the authority’s image with state governments, said former FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett, a telecom and cybersecurity lawyer at Venable. The National Governors Association was critical of the lack of state representation on the board when the board formed in 2012 (CD Sept 25/12 p13), so the addition of Douglas and Parker to the board is “a recognition that Commerce is going to have to pay attention” to the states’ perspective, Barnett said. “There’s been some lost time and misunderstandings, but this goes a long way toward getting FirstNet on the right track with the people that are going to be paying the bills and actually subscribing to the service.”
Four new board members with state and local government experience will “remedy” concerns from governors, but the officials also bring operational experience, said former Seattle Chief Technology Officer Bill Schrier, FirstNet’s point of contact in Washington state. Douglas said he has taken an interest in public safety communications for decades, noting that during his tenure, the state established the Vermont Communications Board to develop interoperable public safety communications for first responders. Douglas said he believes he can improve outreach to state governments. “This might not be a front-burner issue for many governors, but I want to be sure they understand the importance” of working seriously with FirstNet, he said.
Parker’s tenure as mayor of Houston saw the area deploy its public safety LTE network, giving her operational experience on a project that had a history of political friction, Schrier said. The state and local officials’ presence will also help FirstNet “build better value” as a competitor to commercial carriers, he said. Since there’s no requirement that any state agency use FirstNet, the authority is “going to have to show that there’s value in the FirstNet network that’s different from the value a public safety agency would derive from using Verizon or AT&T,” Schrier said.
Hope for Existing Leadership
Improved staffing at FirstNet makes it unclear how board changes could affect the authority’s day-to-day operations, given that some members of the original board also took on significant staffing roles at FirstNet’s start in 2012, Schrier said. Board chairwoman Sue Swenson’s leadership has also steered FirstNet in a better direction, Barnett said. Swenson took over from former board Chairman Sam Ginn earlier this year amid other problems for the authority (CD May 29 p1). Ginn retired from the board in August.
Swenson has “already proven herself to be a great communicator with all FirstNet stakeholders,” Barnett said. “I've advocated that FirstNet recognize that while members of the public safety community are the primary users of FirstNet, the customers are states and local government.” Douglas said he agrees FirstNet is “getting to a good place now” after challenges that he said every startup organization faces. “We're getting to a point where we can answer some of the key questions that FirstNet will have to answer,” he said.
FirstNet’s outreach to the public safety community has improved under Swenson, said National Public Safety Telecommunications Council Executive Director Marilyn Ward. “So far, so good for me under Sue’s leadership,” Ward said. “I'm much more optimistic about the direction that they're heading in now. They're doing the right things, including opening their arms more” to the authority’s Public Safety Advisory Committee, she said. “If they continue this transparency and availability, they'll be heading in the right direction. That’s a big thing for public safety community, to feel that they're participating in the process."
The FirstNet board will have to make several major decisions in the year ahead, chief among them issuing a request for proposals for the FirstNet network’s buildout, Schrier said. The major question in planning that RFP is whether FirstNet should seek a nationwide contract or divide the buildout by issuing individual state contracts, he said. There are also questions about whether the authority should award contracts to telcos or systems integrators, Schrier said.
FirstNet also needs to articulate its financial and cost model to give states a better idea what opting into FirstNet will cost them, Barnett said. “FirstNet is working very hard on the RFPs, but there still needs to be some type of model upon which the RFPs will be based,” he said. “It needs to be explained publicly, and I'm hoping FirstNet will do that in the next few months.”
FirstNet’s anticipated $7 billion in federal funding is “not enough to build a nationwide network” that surpasses the geographic coverage and resiliency of a carrier’s network, so the authority will have to rely partially on existing infrastructure, Schrier said. FirstNet will have to adopt “unique approaches to funding” to make its network succeed, particularly given that its base of first responders and second responders will be far smaller than the base a commercial carrier would draw revenue from, he said.
Other challenges also remain, including FirstNet’s ongoing search for a permanent general manager and the effect of the Commerce Department Office of Inspector General’s ongoing audit of claims that the board’s workings weren’t open and transparent, Schrier said. The IG audit is “ongoing” and there’s no definite timeline for its completion, a spokesman said. The FirstNet board’s investigation last year cleared officials of wrongdoing (CD Sept 24/13 p1). Ex-board member Paul Fitzgerald, who raised concerns about wrongdoing while still on the board more than a year ago, was one of the board members Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker didn’t reappoint. The IG report, when it goes public, “will undoubtedly have recommendations or requirements that could affect FirstNet’s ability to hire staff or procure goods and services,” Schrier said. “Many of us in the field are concerned that federal restrictions mean it'll take a long time to get the network going.”