FirstNet Authority initiates CEO search, spectrum-license renewal process

As expected, the FirstNet Authority recently took its first steps toward hiring a new CEO to lead the organization and to secure an FCC license renewal to the 700 MHz Band 14 airwaves that serve as the spectral foundation to the FirstNet nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) being built by AT&T.

In seeking a successor to former CEO Ed Parkinson, the FirstNet Authority has hired a recruitment firm to conduct a search, FirstNet Authority Acting CEO Lisa Casias said during the APCO 2022 event last month in Anaheim, Calif. This effort is being augmented by an online announcement about the CEO post. There also is more detailed job description that includes a process for potential candidates to express their interest and submit resumes.

“The FirstNet Authority is seeking candidates with experience in areas which may include, but not limited to, public safety or related areas of emergency operations, wireless communications systems, broadband technology, capital investment strategies, and coalition building at the Federal, state, tribal and local level,” according to the announcement about the CEO post.

“Minimum qualifications for this career defining position include the Office of Personnel Management’s Executive Core Qualifications and Professional/Technical qualifications focused on demonstrated knowledge of the public safety community, its mission and challenges, and experience applicable to overseeing a wireless network.”

Acting CEO Casias has been clear that she is not pursuing the permanent CEO job, but she plans to remain at the FirstNet Authority to continue serving as deputy CEO.

This is not the first time that the FirstNet Authority has been without a permanent CEO or leader of the organization’s staff—in fact, the situation has occurred often during the past 10 years.

Parkinson, who left the FirstNet Authority in May to take a position with RapidSOS, served as permanent CEO for a little more than two years, but that followed a period of 17 months in which Parkinson either was acting CEO or shared CEO duties with CTO Jeff Bratcher.

Mike Poth was hired as CEO in August 2015 and continued in that capacity for more than three years. However, Poth’s hiring followed an 18-month period in which TJ Kennedy served as the FirstNet Authority’s acting general manager—at the time, the top staff position in the organization.

Kennedy became acting general manager when General Manager Bill D’Agostino resigned in April 2014 after being in the job for less than a year.

In terms of the 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum (758-769/788-799 MHz), the FCC recently announced that it has accepted the FirstNet Authority’s license-renewal application for the airwaves. The agency is seeking to develop a public record about the spectrum license before making a renewal decision before Nov. 15, which is when the existing 10-year Band 14 license expires.

Those wishing to provide input on the matter can submit pleadings electronically through the FCC’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) (https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/systems-utilities/universal-licensing-system). Pleadings are due by the end of the day on Sept. 22.

Industry experts believe the renewal of the FirstNet Authority license to Band 14 spectrum is largely a procedural matter and will be granted. The FCC has the authority to not renew spectrum licenses, but that typically is done only in circumstances where network-buildout requirements are not met or the licensee is operating in a manner that is illegal or disruptive to other wireless operations.

Those kind of circumstances do not exist for the 700 MHz spectrum licensed FirstNet Authority. FirstNet Authority contractor AT&T already has built an NPSBN that provides nationwide coverage—by the FCC’s definition—on the Band 14 airwaves. FirstNet provides more than 3.7 million connections to more than 21,800 public-safety agencies as of the end of June, and those figures have grown steadily since the network began accepting subscribers less than five years ago.