Journey to FirstNet a story of remarkable persistence, refusal to succumb to doubters
In the Disney animated classic Peter Pan, Peter tells Wendy the way to Neverland: “second star to the right and straight on till morning.” As fantastical and vague as those Peter Pan directions are, some in 2014 would have argued that they were about as realistic as FirstNet ever reaching the end of its roadmap—much less within the aggressive timetables established for the myriad tasks.
Such doubts were only reinforced shortly after the program roadmap was approved. Within three months, four of the highest-profile FirstNet figures at the time—General Manager Bill D’Agostino, Chief Technology Officer Ali Afrashteh, Chairman Sam Ginn and Vice Chairman Craig Farrill—were out of the picture.
But things started getting done, with TJ Kennedy leading a growing FirstNet staff methodically through each step listed in the roadmap. Not only were the tasks completed, but they were being completed on schedule, give or take a few weeks—a trend that has been maintained throughout the procurement process, although a legal protest did cause the award to be delayed by several months.
In June 2014, Sue Swenson and Jeff Johnson were named as the FirstNet board’s chairwoman and vice chairman, respectively, to form a dynamic duo in the top leadership roles. Almost immediately, transparency regarding FirstNet’s activities and an increased role for the Harlin McEwen-led Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) became trademarks for the organization.
Less than three years after the FirstNet board transition, AT&T has been awarded the 25-year nationwide contract. Based on what we know about the deal, there are no questions about the self-sustainability of FirstNet during this period—indeed, AT&T will pay FirstNet $18 billion as part of its $40 billion overall investment—even through the federal government will not be any additional funding.
That’s an incredibly important point. Many critics of the FirstNet plan noted the lack of full funding to build out the network from Day 1, with most noting that additional federal money would be needed to make the NPSBN vision a reality. Even if the network was built, if it provided limited coverage or an uncertain future, many questioned whether public-safety agencies would be willing to adopt the service. Given that there was no doubt that $7 billion allocated by Congress simply was not enough to build the FirstNet system, industry skepticism about FirstNet was understandable.
FirstNet responded by issuing a request for proposals (RFP) that called for the contractor to make regular payments to FirstNet totaling a minimum $5.625 billion—a figure that approaches the $6.5 billion in cash that FirstNet would bring to the deal.
The RFP seemed to address all of the key operational and sustainability issues, but one huge question remained: Would any bidders submit proposals, especially with the relatively small amount of federal funding effectively removed from the deal over the life of the contract?
From the outside, it seemed like a very gutsy proposal by FirstNet, asking bidders to build a nationwide public-safety-grade network essentially for access to 20 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum. Making matters seemingly more difficult was the fact that the FCC was conducting an auction of 84 MHz of 600 MHz spectrum that would not be limited by public-safety requirements at the same time as the FirstNet was offering its spectrum.