FirstNet should be applauded for keeping its promise, delivering final RFP on time

But this changed in March 2014, when the FirstNet board approved its Strategic Roadmap. FirstNet President TJ Kennedy yesterday recounted how the roadmap document was created with Swenson’s help, just months after Swenson was tempted to quit the FirstNet board altogether.

“Sue was intimately involved in the creation of the strategic roadmap,” Kennedy said during the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) meeting. “I think it was mostly the holiday season of [2013] that Sue and I, and a handful of others, spent a lot of time working through the strategic roadmap, and we released it in March of 2014.

“People don’t understand the amount of dedication [involved]—the Saturdays, the Sundays, the nights and the early mornings. I usually talked to Sue at 5:30 in the morning California time; it’s a pretty common time for her to cranking away at the office or at home.”

While FirstNet board members trumpeted the approval of the strategic roadmap in March 2014, many public-safety representatives and industry observers expressed skepticism that the lengthy process outlined in the document—more than 40 steps—could be done at all, much less within an timeline that eventually called for FirstNet to release its request for proposal (RFP) by the end of this year.

Such skepticism was understandable. After all, FirstNet really had not accomplished anything tangible at the time, and the organization still had only a skeleton staff to pursue some monumental tasks, including extensive outreach efforts. Furthermore, veterans of the critical-communications industry have become accustomed to seeing major initiatives take several years longer than expected—for example, the establishment of the P25 standard, 800 MHz rebanding and the implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) technology on the nation’s railways.

Of course, there was a litany of reasons why each of the above initiatives suffered delays, some of which were more legitimate than others.

But these excuses pale in comparison to the challenges that FirstNet has faced. Not only has FirstNet has been understaffed for most of its existence, but it some of the unfilled positions are among the most crucial to an organization trying to build a nationwide network. Remember, this week marks the first time that FirstNet has had a permanent CEO/general manager and a chief technology officer (CTO) in place simultaneously since being created almost four year ago.

As if a lack of overall staffing and senior-leadership direction were not enough of a problem, FirstNet also has had to overcome issues known from the beginning: no one has ever built a public-safety broadband network. Furthermore, this project is not fully funded, so any chance of success hinges on the ability to establish a public-private partnership that also is unprecedented.

Despite all of these ready-made excuses, the hard-working FirstNet team has continued to proceed in accordance with the strategic roadmap, accomplishing task after task by their promised timelines, culminating with the release of the final RFP early next month.