FirstNet is sending out an invite (RFP). Will anyone come?

Let’s face it, when FirstNet was first defined LTE was still fairly new as a fourth-generation technology, even though Verizon, AT&T, and others had begun deploying it. Today, 3-plus years after the creation of FirstNet, LTE is table stakes for anyone who wants to provide wireless services anywhere in the world. The standards for basic LTE services have been in place for a long time. Radio Access Vendors that provide LTE transceivers have been doing so for a number of years and all of the products are interchangeable and typically work with any company’s Enhanced Packet Core (EPC), the brains of an LTE network. It does not take an RFP that repeatedly refers to the LTE standards, this requirement and that requirement, to find partners that know how to build out an LTE network that works as it should.

Granted, there are some special requirements—such as true priority service—that has never been offered before in an LTE network, and there are skeptics, including me, who do not see any signs that true ruthless preemption (throwing off a secondary user from the network, even in the middle of a session) is even possible. Some think the FirstNet network needs to mimic every feature and function of commercial networks and also provide mission-critical or Public Safety-grade push-to-talk.

I am not one of these. I believe that, in the early days, the FirstNet network should provide only what it was intended to provide: data and video services for the public-safety community. Later, if telephony or dial-up voice, texting, MMS, and push-to-talk can be proven as cost effective as contracting with commercial operators and, in the case of push-to-talk, truly be as mission-critical as LMR voice, then let’s bring it on—but NOT in the first 3 or 4 years of FirstNet, while it is being built and trying to attract public-safety users.

In making a case for companies to respond to the final RFP, FirstNet makes a couple of assumptions concerning a company’s decision to partner with FirstNet. The first is that public-safety users almost automatically will move from their current commercial broadband network to FirstNet; or if they are not using a broadband network, they will hop on board as soon as FirstNet covers their area. According to FirstNet, this should result in 3 million or more paying subscribers that will help with build and operational costs.

Even though FirstNet has the relationship with public safety, the draft RFP leaves it up to the partner to sell the devices and service to the public-safety community. Also, I believe the migration of first responders to FirstNet will take time. I do not believe a department will simply equip every firefighter or patrolman with access to FirstNet. I believe this will be a top-down deployment. Those in charge of personnel in the trenches will have the capabilities first and learn how to use them and their capabilities. Then, perhaps, those in the trenches will be equipped with the devices. This means the income from the first-responder community for the first few years will grow in value gradually and someone (the partner) might have to absorb more of the cost of network build and operation than anticipated.

The next case concerns what FirstNet has to offer: secondary use of a valuable portion of radio spectrum. We all know network operators are running out of spectrum to service their broadband customers who now demand streaming video regardless of where they are, who want and “need” instant high-speed and full-capacity access so they can post their own video, or want to play a high-def interactive game. The stats are revealing when it comes to bandwidth usage. Demand keeps growing at a rate that continues to outpace cell site deployment and spectrum availability. Therefore, the value of the FirstNet broadband spectrum, even on a secondary basis, is worth a lot of money to a potential partner or two.