APCO says what many in public safety believe, calling story about FirstNet ‘inaccurate’ and ‘inflammatory’
In addition, the story indicates that notions like bandwidth prioritization are no longer an issue on commercial networks. This seems like a strange argument, given that commercial carriers have told federal lawmakers that they would not grant public safety prioritization on their network—that was why FirstNet was created in the first place.
The story also notes that this was a problem during Hurricane Sandy, which struck the East Coast less than four years ago. The only thing that has changed since then is that AT&T and Verizon have initiated programs to provide public safety with prioritization, but only if first-responder agencies are willing to pay more on per-subscriber basis.
Many assertions in the article make sense for voice communications but do not apply to data communications, which is expected to represent FirstNet’s primary usage, particularly during its early years.
For instance, there is wireless voice priority-service program for public-safety users via a Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but none exists today for wireless data services. Without such priority, it is difficult for first responders to use applications such as streaming video, because they would not know if they could count on good performance in the most difficult times.
As for the premise that the FirstNet system already is obsolete, there are at least three bidding teams that likely would disagree heartily, if they had the time.
“This was such an insult, frankly, to public safety and FirstNet,” Cohen said. “If they did such a horrible job and it’s not even needed, why are people bidding on it?”
Does this mean that FirstNet should be declared a success already? Absolutely not—and I suspect that FirstNet officials would agree.
With the RFP process still unfinished, FirstNet has a long way to go, and no one should be satisfied until this much-anticipated network is operating in the manner desired by public-safety advocates. But after some missteps during its first two years, FirstNet has made steady progress and appears to be on the verge of making this vision a reality.