FirstNet’s Kennedy highlights progress made during the past year
“If you look at the consultation process, it’s going to take some time for folks to work through that. It’s not an overnight process,” Kennedy said. “I would suspect it’s a yearlong to two-year to whatever-long process, depending on states and how they work through that process. I think some states will go faster, and some states will go slower.”
Here are a few other highlights from last week’s FirstNet town hall:
- Pre-FirstNet networks: When asked about the failed negotiations with Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant recipients Charlotte and the state of Mississippi, Kennedy said, “Everybody had a different style of network they were building and different costs and different elements that they had to agree to build. So some of those worked out and some of those did not. But we’re very excited to see those that are continuing and the good work that’s being done.”
- Self-sustainability: When asked about how the network would be sustained in the future, Kennedy said, “The better job that we do on leveraging the excess capacity, the better the user fees will be … That is a very new way of creating a plan self-sustainability that is different than the way we have done it in the past. But it really looks forward to how do you have a network that gets recapitalized, and you can upgrade on open standards that change and are going to grow. All of us have watched the transition from 2G to 3G to 4G and LTE—and that’s going to continue to happen—so this new approach is a very good approach for FirstNet and the public-safety community.”
- Staffing: Regional outreach positions will be posted in the next 30 to 45 days. FirstNet is also filling other positions, such as the director of applications at the Boulder, Colo., technical headquarters and roles within government affairs.
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