FirstNet, AT&T Score Clean Sweep of States

Nationwide acceptance means “a clear path to delivering a truly nationwide broadband network for first responders,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a Friday statement. It means “public safety is assured of an enduring, self-sufficient network to serve them for years to come,” FirstNet CEO Mike Poth said in a Friday news release. FirstNet Chair Sue Swenson said that “this life-saving network is now a reality across America.” AT&T Senior Vice President-FirstNet Chris Sambar said, "Securing 53 opt-ins is significant for the public safety personnel that this network will serve.”

FirstNet plans to send work orders to deploy RANs in the 53 jurisdictions in early 2018, allowing AT&T to deploy Band 14, FirstNet said. The core network is on schedule to be operational in March, and the authority plans to expand the FirstNet app store and continue communication with public safety agencies. "We still have much work to do to realize the full potential of FirstNet for public safety everywhere, including rural America,” Poth said.

The sweep shows no state wanted to take on the risk of building its own RAN, said Yejin Cooke, government affairs director for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said he didn’t want to be the only state to opt out, and that may have resonated with other states, she said. Now it’s up to public safety agencies to subscribe, she said.

“While it's notable that it was unanimous, not sure it would have been material to AT&T if a handful had opted out,” BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk told us. AT&T's winning almost all the states was expected, said Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics. “It is highly beneficial for the states to join with FirstNet,” he said. “Since it is approved by the federal government nobody will get into trouble if something goes wrong. Verizon and Rivada winning some contracts here and there is the nature of business.”

“Talk is over, now it is go time for AT&T,” said Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche in an email to investors. Governors in many of the states put out news releases “which described that by opting in to this plan [the state] would receive expanded coverage in rural and urban areas,” she said. “In Colorado for example, the … government noted that a key turning point in accepting AT&T's plan was a commitment from [AT&T] to provide 35 more cell sites to enhance coverage. Similar comments were made by other state governors.”

“We expect AT&T can now finalize more detailed plans and be ready to begin deployment of FirstNet spectrum along with AWS-3 and WCS spectrum in 2018,” Raymond James analysts said in a note to investors. “This should be good for towers … but more importantly good for the country and our first responders.”

The International Association of Fire Chiefs applauded. “Not only will this network remedy current communications challenges, but it will also usher in a wave of innovation for public safety and allow us to communicate unthrottled with responders from other agencies, districts, regions, tribes and states,” said IAFC board member Richard Carizzo, fire chief of Southern Platte, Missouri.

California Concerns

California’s governor said yes but raised concerns about the AT&T plan and protested the opt-out process. “While California remains concerned that the proposed plan does not address all our State’s needs, California is opting into the plan with the expectation that our concerns will be addressed throughout our partnership,” Brown said in a Thursday letter to FirstNet.

“More work is needed for the FirstNet State Plan to ultimately be a successful initiative that provides a durable public safety communications network,” said Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci in a letter attached to Brown’s. FirstNet should commit to interoperability of applications across all systems and carriers, he said. AT&T should make its core network compliant with Criminal Justice Information Services and the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System security standards; in the meantime, the carrier should give CLETS and CJIS subscribers a free mobile application providing that connectivity, he said. Also, AT&T should harden cellsites, including with backup microwave connection sites, seven days of generator backup and eight hours of battery backup for all sites, and quarterly inspections “to ensure adequate defensible space is established and maintained for all sites,” he said.

"FirstNet’s regulatory and procedural process makes the opt-out option in California untenable,” said Ghilarducci. That's partly why the state opted in, he said. The state saw a difficult federal approval process ahead and “undefined financial liability” if the opt-out plan didn’t succeed. “The terms of the spectrum manager lease agreement were impossible for the State to accept and unpalatable to potential vendors," the OES official said. "This stifled competition and ultimately acted as a major barrier to the pursuit of a meaningful opt-out process.”

Every state opting in is good because it means a single network for public safety, but California has valid concerns about security, site hardening and interoperability, said Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications Systems Authority General Manager Barry Fraser. “The AT&T solution is not perfect, but it is a good start, and there is tremendous opportunity for public safety agencies to make it better in the near future," Fraser said. "Low FirstNet adoption rates would create a big incentive for AT&T to improve coverage or resiliency at the local agency level, but only if public safety applications work seamlessly between AT&T and other carriers.”

AT&T attended more than a dozen town hall meetings in California, and the carrier will work closely with OES and public safety to address any issues that arise over the 25-year contract term, an AT&T spokeswoman said. "We believe that the thoroughness and transparency of the process allowed us to reach a very strong agreement with the state."