Massachusetts seeks bidders for potential public-safety RAN alternative to nationwide FirstNet system
Whether such state-plan nondisclosure agreements could hamper the Massachusetts approach to the second phase of the procurement is unclear. Calls by IWCE’s Urgent Communications to officials for FirstNet and the state of Massachusetts on this matter were not returned in time to be included in this article.
Under the law that created FirstNet, each governor will receive a state plan from FirstNet that details how the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) would be deployed within the state or territory. Upon receiving the final state plan—something that is expected to happen in the fall—the governor will have 90 days to decide whether to accept the FirstNet state plan or purse the “opt-out” alternative.
By accepting the state plan, the public-safety broadband system would be built and maintained by FirstNet and AT&T at no cost to the state. By pursuing the “opt-out” scenario, the governor would obligate the state to meet a set of aggressive timelines in an attempt to build and maintain the public-safety RAN within the state or territory while maintaining interoperability with the nationwide FirstNet system.
Massachusetts is the seventh state to initiate a procurement to address the potential need for a RAN vendor in the event of an “opt-out” scenario, joining the states of New Hampshire, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan and Wisconsin.
To date, New Hampshire is the only state that has made a vendor selection—Rivada Networks—as a result of its procurement.
Analysts that have studied the “opt-out” scenario have noted that states with the most dense population per square mile—not necessarily those with the largest populations or wireless adoption—could be the most valuable to the nationwide FirstNet contractor, AT&T.
Massachusetts is unique among the states that have initiated RAN procurements in that it ranks third among U.S. states in population density, according to 2013 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. As a point of comparison, Michigan ranks 17th in population, followed by New Hampshire (21st), Wisconsin (24th), Alabama (27th), Arizona (33rd) and Colorado (37th) on the list of states initiating RAN procurements.