Did you blink during the last few weeks? If so, here are some things you may have missed

FirstNet—At the beginning of the month, FirstNet may have made some enemies—and that’s a good thing, in my opinion.

Now, nobody wants enemies, but that’s a natural byproduct of making key decisions. Some will be liked, and others will not. But, to a large extent, the FirstNet board has avoided taking positions on key topics, presumably because it did not want to prematurely eliminate any approach that could help make a nationwide broadband network for public safety a reality.

During its Oct. 2 meeting, the FirstNet board made some key decisions. One was approving a final legal interpretation that calls for opt-out states to share revenues generated in their territories with the rest of the country, which most industry analysts believe strongly discourages states and territories from considering the opt-out alternative.

In addition, the FirstNet board approved a plan to accept only nationwide bids, which removed the possibility of regional bids from the process. The move made sense, because many questioned how regional—or Category 2, as it was named in FirstNet’s draft RFP—bids would be evaluated in comparison to nationwide bids, much less how a winning regional bid would be integrated into the nationwide network.

In approving the nationwide-bid measure, the FirstNet board emphasized that the details would require nationwide bids to include rural carriers and small business. Exactly how that will work is unknown, because the text of the legal interpretations has not been released yet.

But such decisions likely will disappoint some people and companies, as FirstNet Vice Chairman Jeff Johnson noted.

“I understand that fundamentally, as the chute gets narrower and narrower on clarifying how we’re going to procure, we’re going to upset some people,” Johnson said. “There’s going to be some people who see their opportunity tarnish or evaporate altogether. Or, they’re going to see a bright light shine on it and say, ‘This is perfect for us.’

“I understand that and expect to hear from people that love this and people that are bothered by it. But that said, it’s important that we don’t forget our purpose … Our purpose is to deliver a nationwide network for public safety. That’s our purpose … and to do so in a timely fashion and to do so at a price that we can afford in the smallest and most underfunded agencies in this country, but with enough sophistication and capacity to serve the biggest demands placed on this network. That’s our charge.”

And FirstNet still need to make a lot more of these tough decisions during the next 10 weeks, if it is going to be ready to release its final RFP by the end of the month, as planned. Some of the key items that need to be determined, so that potential bidders can make educated proposals include:

• Public safety priority/preemption—Public safety needs preemptive priority, but no one has detailed under what conditions that it would happen. Potential partners need this information to make an educated estimate about the value of the secondary-use spectrum that is a key component of the FirstNet business model.
• Minimum data rates—FirstNet’s draft RFP cites certain data rates that were established several years ago, but it also left a caveat that the data-rate minimums could change. Obviously, increased data rates could increase the number of sites that need to be deployed by FirstNet’s winning partner.
• Network reliability standards—Realistically, FirstNet cannot afford to harden every single network element. But which elements will be hardened for power and redundancy? In addition, who wants to tell a local police chief that a site in his jurisdiction is “not critical enough” to be hardened?
• Liability—This is a big one, but I haven’t heard as much about it as I would expect. Carriers are willing to provide 911 services largely because they are exempt from legal liability if something goes wrong in the 911 process. Maybe this has been determined already, but similar legal protection likely is needed for entities providing services to FirstNet.

There are other examples, of course, but these are few key items that will have to be addressed soon. So don’t blink, or you might miss something.