FirstNet issues public notice, comprehensive RFI in key steps toward procurement

While the public notice includes staff interpretations of legal issues, they are not policy statements for FirstNet or its board members, Swenson said.

“The act describes some things that we think need interpretation,” Swenson said. “We are offering up a view of that. It is clearly an opportunity, frankly, for all of you in the audience and the viewing audience on the webcast to actually provide input to it.

“So, this is very open transparent process, and I just want to make sure everybody understands that these are not decisions; these are frameworks of things to think about and react to.”

Since its establishment two years ago, FirstNet has been in a market-research phase to determine what is technologically possible and what is practical from various perspectives, including funding and operations. By issuing a comprehensive RFI, FirstNet officials can continue to gather input from—and interact with—vendors in an open manner before being constrained by fairness rules and policies associated with an RFP.

“After this market-research phase ends, it will not be the time to have additional market research, where we can have open dialog with industry,” Kennedy said. “What’s so important about an RFI like this is that we can take that open dialog today, and we can take those inputs. But, when we get into the RFP, we are actually locked down during that RFP process, and … there are specific points where we will have to turn off that communication to keep the integrity of the RFP process.”

Given these realities, FirstNet is entering a period in which board members will have to be more careful in their interactions with vendor representatives to comply with legal guidelines and policies, Swenson said Monday during the FirstNet governance committee meeting, which was webcast.

“While our ability to interact was broader in the past, I think there’s going to be a change in that,” Swenson said. “I think it’s really important to communicate to the many people who want to interact with us that it’s likely that we’re going to have to say, “No.’ I don’t people to perceive it as being uninterested, but we’re embarking on a new era.

"I think it signals good news, because we actually moving ahead and getting to a point where we have to have this conversation [about restricted interaction with vendor representatives], but I think it's going to feel unnatural to people who may not be as familiar with it. I just want to make sure that everyone's aware that we haven't all of a sudden become unresponsive."