Next-gen 911, FirstNet need to interoperate effectively and efficiently, NENA official says

States that supply such assets to support the FirstNet broadband initiative could realize financial benefits, Forgety said.

“Essentially, you make a capital investment in FirstNet, and—as a result—your user fees could be lower,” Forgety said. “I don’t know for certain that that’s the financial model that they’ll adopt, but it is one way that you could account for the fact that states are essentially giving FirstNet access to that infrastructure.”

Forgety said state and local officials should work to ensure that the 911 perspective is represented well at the state level as the plans for the FirstNet rollout are being formulated for their jurisdictions within the state-consultation process.

 “Make absolutely certain you get 911 representation,” Forgety said. “And when I say that, I don’t mean someone who is a police captain in charge of a call center. Get someone who is natively a 911 professional and get them on your government body; otherwise, the concerns of this independent and unique public-safety discipline are often going to be overlooked.”

Without such representation, opportunities to deploy FirstNet and next-generation 911 in the most effective and efficient manner possible could be missed, Forgety said. This may require a state to establish a strong 911-oriented governing body, even if some might perceive it as being duplicative to other public-safety-communications initiatives, he said.

 “The federal government has put lot of backing into the creation of state interoperability government bodies, and now there are these state governing bodies for FirstNet and so forth,” Forgety said. “I am very concerned that those bodies may not effectively represent and incorporate the interests of the 911 community.

“If  911 ends up as just one element of the FirstNet thing, I fear that it’s going to get lost. Now, some states tell me that they have great representation, and that’s not a problem. Other states tell me, ‘No, we feel much more comfortable having 911 as a separate governing body,’ because it can prevent that kind of takeover, if you will.”