FirstNet begins post-bid evaluation process after proposal deadline passes

Leading pdvWireless is a host of former Nextel Communications executives, including Morgan O’Brien, who proposed the notion of a nationwide public-safety broadband network 10 years ago. At that time, O’Brien led Cyren Call, a company that later effectively served as the staff of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST)—the license holder of half of the 700 MHz spectrum now licensed to FirstNet—during its first couple of years.

While much of the industry focus has been on the identity of the prime bidders, each offeror team is expected to include several vendors. Some companies—for instance, manufacturers of LTE base stations—are expected to be on multiple offeror teams, according to industry observers.

There is no requirement that a commercial wireless carrier be part of an offeror team, but a requirement that the contractor provide coverage for 95% of the country within six months of signing a contract makes it difficult from a practical standpoint to envision a carrier not being involved in a winning bid.

Bids in response to the FirstNet RFP were due today, marking a significant milestone in the organization’s four-year effort to build a self-sustaining wireless broadband network for U.S. first responders—a task identified in 2012 legislation passed by Congress that allocated 20 MHz of spectrum to FirstNet and provided the new entity with $7 billion in funding.

FirstNet receiving at least one bid to evaluate represents a stark contrast to the primary effort of the unfunded PSST, which saw its best opportunity to build a data network for public safety disintegrate when no qualifying bids were submitted in the FCC’s 700 MHz D Block auction in 2008.

Today’s proposal deadline was a month later than the April 29 date originally set in the FirstNet RFP, but FirstNet officials have stated that Nov. 1 continues to be the target date for completing the evaluation process and signing a 25-year contract with the selected offeror team.

Although FirstNet’s RFP promises $6.5 billion to the contractor, money is a relatively small part of the proposed deal. Under the terms of the RFP, the contractor will have make annual payments to FirstNet totaling at least $5.625 billion during the next 25 years, guaranteeing that FirstNet will be self-sustaining from a financial standpoint.

Gaining long-term access to FirstNet’s 20 MHz of spectrum that can be leveraged to offer services to public-safety users on a priority basis and to consumers on a secondary basis is the primary benefit to offeror teams.

In addition to its financial structure, the FirstNet RFP is unique in that it contains relatively few requirements. Instead, the FirstNet RFP asks offeror teams to make proposals that address 16 core public-safety objectives, but it is designed to provide offeror teams with significant latitude regarding the manner in which they meet those objectives.