FirstNet draft state plans expected to be delivered around June 19, AT&T exec says

Public-safety entities in states and territories that accept the FirstNet state plan immediately will be allowed to subscribe to broadband services with “ruthless preemption” across all of AT&T’s commercial spectrum bands, Donovan said. Fire, EMS and law-enforcement agencies definitely will qualify for this preemptive access, but no announcement has been made whether other entities—for example, governments, utilities, healthcare facilities or other critical-infrastructure sectors—would be eligible for the service.

As soon as a state or territory accepts the state plan, AT&T will have the right to begin deployment of the public-safety network within that jurisdiction on FirstNet’s 20 MHz of Band 14 700MHz spectrum—something that could happen during the latter part of this year, Donovan said. As technical crews execute this work for the Band 14 system, they also will deploy gear that will let AT&T begin to offer services on a combined 40 MHz of unused spectrum in the AWS and WCS bands, Donovan said.

“What FirstNet has allowed us to do is unlock an opportunity for us to get a very economical way to deploy all of the [AT&T] spectrum that's out there,” Donovan said. “It also [provides] an opportunity for us to get our white space in coverage cared for. And so, our network is now going to be more comprehensive, faster and more reliable.

“So, for the engineer in me—the network side of things—it really is a great opportunity for us to take our wireless network to the next level.”

States or territories that choose to pursue the “opt-out” alternative will have 180 days to complete a request-for-proposal (RFP) procurement process before submitting an alternative RAN plan to the FCC for an interoperability review. After getting FCC approval, a state pursuing the “opt-out” alternative will need to get approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and negotiate a spectrum-lease agreement with FirstNet before beginning to construct the RAN within its borders.

NTIA is authorized to provide grant money to opt-out states to help offset some RAN construction costs, but NTIA officials have said the grant program will not provide enough money to fully fund RAN construction in any state. In addition, opt-out states will be required to pay for all ongoing testing of equipments and applications being used in the opt-out state’s RAN. In contrast, states that accept the FirstNet state plan are not responsible for any such costs, because their testing will be conducted in the FirstNet laboratories in Colorado.

Both the FCC and NTIA are expected to provide guidance that clearly outlines the criteria associated for its reviews and potentially a timetable, but that information is not available today.