House subcommittee applauds FirstNet’s progress toward nationwide public-safety network

Members of a House subcommittee and the state of Ohio CIO yesterday expressed support for FirstNet’s timely execution of its deployment roadmap, offering recommendations about what the much-anticipated nationwide public-safety broadband network should include when it becomes a reality.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the House Communications and Technology subcommittee, said FirstNet took some questionable actions initially that were the subject of an Inspector General investigation, but he is encouraged by the progress made during the past year and a half.

“I hope the missteps are behind us, and I believe they are,” Walden said during yesterday’s subcommittee hearing, which was webcast.

In prepared testimony and while answering questions, Kennedy said that FirstNet’s current focus is on consultation and acquisition noted several key elements of FirstNet’s deployment plans, much of which are included in its draft RFP documents:

• Responses to the draft RFP are due to FirstNet on July 27;
• Early-builder public-safety LTE projects in Harris County and Adams County are operational. Other early-builder projects in New Jersey, New Mexico and Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) are supposed to be completed in September;
• Initial state consultations have been completed with 34 of the 56 states and territories, and that figure should increase to 49 by the end of September. An initial consultation meeting with all 56 states and territories should be conducted by the end of the year;
• FirstNet officials hope to issue a final RFP by the end of the year; if not, it will be released in early 2016;
• Most of 2016 will be spent receiving RFP responses and evaluating them;
• FirstNet expects to provide governors with state plans in late 2016 or early 2017, at which time the governors will decide whether they want to pursue the opt-out alternative;
• FirstNet plans to begin making RFP deployment awards in 2017, with operations probably beginning in 2018; and
• Rural buildout milestones are included in each of the five deployment phases, in 20% increments. At the end of the five-year plan, coverage should be provided to rural areas.

Overall, Kennedy said that FirstNet has been executing on its roadmap released last spring in its scheduled timetable.

“We are actually doing what we told you we would do,” Kennedy said. “We released a plan, and we’re sticking to it, and we’re meeting the goals we set out to achieve."

Walden applauded the leadership of Kennedy and his team, as well as the progress that FirstNet has made.

“Thank you for your commitment to do what you told us you would do—that’s novel,” Walden said jokingly. “We were just suggesting that we should bring you back more often … We’ve got a few other agencies we can assign you to, too.”

Kennedy has been serving as FirstNet’s acting executive director for more than 14 months. No announcement has been made when a full-time executive director will be named.