FirstNet contractor will not be announced by Nov. 1, according to FirstNet CEO Poth

Under the FAR, an evaluation team cannot begin to negotiate with the top bidders—those bidders deemed to be in the “competitive range” of winning the award—until all bidders that are determined to be not in the competitive range have been notified that they are not being considered.

Given the fact that pdvWireless was not informed in writing of its removal from consideration until Oct. 17, most industry observers expressed doubt that the bidding teams deemed to be in the competitive range could have their lengthy and complex proposals fully evaluated and a selection made by the original Nov. 1 date.

From a logistical standpoint, another question being asked by many is whether FirstNet will make its announcement concurrent with a contract with the selected contractor, or whether the selected contractor would be identified before finalizing contract negotiations. FirstNet officials have not disclosed these plans to date.

Most observers believe waiting until a contract is completed likely would cause an announcement to be delayed longer, noting that getting myriad lawyers from various levels of the federal government and dozens of companies associated with the contractor team to approve language on a complex, 25-year deal promises to be challenging.

Simply identifying the FirstNet winner without a contract would allow the announcement to be executed earlier, but some public-safety officials have expressed concern that such an approach could reduce the negotiating leverage that FirstNet and the federal government could have with the winning bidder as contract terms are finalized.

No matter which approach is used, the timetables associated with the tasks, buildout and upgrades to the FirstNet system are based on the date that the contract is signed, according to the RFP.