FirstNet releases consultation package, plans to begin talks with states in July
“One thing I want to get across is that our view is that each one of these plans has to be a unique and jointly developed plan for each state,” then-FirstNet General Manager Bill D’Agostino said during a 2013 interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “That’s the key to the success, in our opinion, of adoption—the ability for the governors and the agencies in the states to say, ‘My team has worked with FirstNet, we have built this plan together, and we believe in it.’
“Otherwise … I can say, ‘Hi, we’re from the federal government. We have a great plan—use it.’ And they’re going to toss me out. I want to build it from the bottom up, and I want to have it really jointly developed and cost it out. Then, I think we’ll have a high degree of success."
FirstNet board member Craig Farrill echoed this sentiment.
“We want [officials for states and territories] to say, ‘This is my plan,’ before it goes to the governor, not ‘This is FirstNet’s plan,’” Farrill said last fall. “This is Colorado’s plan, this is D.C.’s plan, and this is Alaska’s plan—that’s ultimately where we have to get it. That’s when you know it becomes theirs—because they helped write it, they helped draft it and they own it—and then we’ll be successful.”
During the past three weeks, FirstNet has had significant executive-level personnel changes, with D’Agostino’s resignation and the hiring of Ali Afrashteh as chief technology officer (CTO).