AT&T CEO Pushing Company Forward on FirstNet, FirstNet's Poth Says
CEO Randall Stephenson is putting pressure on AT&T to move forward quickly on FirstNet, holding monthly meetings on the topic, FirstNet CEO Mike Poth said Wednesday at the authority's board meeting. It was the board's first full meeting since AT&T was picked as lead partner in March (see 1703300050). Three months in, AT&T is exceeding expectations and rollout of the network is ahead of schedule, Poth said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Public safety is putting high expectations and lots of demands on FirstNet “as they should” and that’s being passed along to AT&T, Poth said. The carrier is “truly committed … all the way up to their CEO,” he said. FirstNet and AT&T recently released state plans three months ahead of schedule (see 1706190072), “a significant jump in a project of this complexity,” Poth said. “That’s just the pace and the tempo that we expect. … The sense of urgency remains.” Fifty-three of 56 states and territories met with FirstNet officials or scheduled meetings since the state plans were released, Poth said.
The network will have personnel and equipment ready to be sent into areas of the country when a hurricane or other disaster strikes, said President TJ Kennedy. Public safety agencies will be able to call a single number when they need specialized assets, Kennedy said. Chair Sue Swenson said at a recent Dallas meeting with state single points of contact that AT&T discussed everything it's doing on deployable equipment, including drones.
Vice Chair Jeff Johnson said the authority needs to closely monitor state efforts to limit commercial use of drones. Public safety use should be exempt, even if AT&T operates the drones on behalf of FirstNet, he said. “Now, we’re going to get flying repeaters,” Johnson said. Drones, cells on wings, can be deployed much more quickly than traditional cells on wheels, Kennedy said. “We’re going to see massive evolution over the next couple of years.” AT&T’s FirstNet deployables will be available by the end of September, Kennedy said.
FirstNet is working with numerous smaller carriers to ensure its network “gets to parts of the country and goes further than any network,” Kennedy said. “This is absolutely critical.” The revenue that comes back will be reinvested in the network, he said. FirstNet also must have a “very lean operation that is allowed to focus on providing the best network possible for public safety,” he said.
When the opt-out or opt-in process is completed later this year, “this will certainly give certainty to the amount of work that needs to be done if there are any opt-out states and to work through that,” Kennedy said. Public safety will be able to start pre-empting other users to get access to FirstNet and AT&T spectrum about three months before the March target, he said. “Public safety has always wanted priority and pre-emption,” he said. “This will be the first time that’s available.”
Swenson predicted that with the spectrum portfolio AT&T brings, FirstNet likely will see little discussion in the future of Band 14, the 700 MHz spectrum assigned to the public safety. “Users really don’t give a rat’s ass,” she said. “It’s like, ‘I don’t care what band I’m on, does it work or not?’”
Public safety knows none of the spectrum in the network will get a “thumbs-up” from FirstNet “until it meets public safety grade and standards,” Johnson said. The network will be “much larger” than AT&T's, he said. “It’s a much broader offering than just the Band 14 offering, which I think is a very important factor” adding additional capacity, he said.
The FCC meanwhile seeks expedited comment on FirstNet’s proposed criteria for the commission’s review of alternative state plans for “interoperability with the nationwide public safety broadband network.” FCC officials said last week they would seek comment on the issues raised by FirstNet (see 1706220019). The commission approved the rest of state opt-out rules 3-0. The Public Safety Spectrum Act directed the FCC to review alternative state plans using a two-prong test, said the Wednesday public notice by the Public Safety Bureau. The questions concern the second prong related to interoperability. Comments will be due in docket 16-269 10 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register.