Caught in the middle

But NTIA's position put many early movers in precarious situations. In the San Francisco Bay area, resource-challenged governmental entities that spent almost 5,000 hours of staff time through early 2012 trying to meet NTIA grant buildout deadlines were told to stop working on the project, which was supposed to be funded largely by a $50.6 million grant awarded to Motorola Solutions.

"I'm not criticizing — I think the FCC and NTIA are moving as quickly as possible," said Barry Fraser, interim general manager for the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications Systems (BayRICS) Authority. "But these things take time, and it's just unfortunate that we're kind of in the middle of this project, and now we're being told to hold off and wait for further directions.

"It could be several months before we know a lot. It makes it tough for cities and counties to plan for this type of thing. … It's not the best situation to be in, by any means."

Adams County and the state of Mississippi face even tougher situations, because both entities already had paid for and received LTE equipment from their respective vendors — in fact, Mississippi had complete installation at 137 of its 144 sites when the NTIA halted work on May 11, according to the state's filing with the FCC.

Meanwhile, the Adams County entity — known as ADCOM 911 — has spent 81% of its network funding, which is "substantially complete," according to the county's FCC filing that seeks special temporary authority (STA) to finish the LTE deployment.

"If an STA is not approved, [$7.59 million in local and federal funding] will be stranded, and local political goodwill will be extinguished," the filing states. "In addition, all of the LTE equipment has been paid for and is held in three 40-foot storage containers at the ADCOM 911 facility."