States of Washington, Oregon announce plans to issue joint RFP to explore FirstNet alternative

In addition to Georgia, Mississippi and Vermont, 13 other states have issued RFP without having their governors announce an “opt-in/opt-out” decision to date: Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. Of these states, New Hampshire is only state to announce the winner of its procurement—Rivada Networks.

FirstNet released its initial state plans on June 19 and made them actionable, so governors would have the opportunity to “opt-in” to FirstNet early, as well as after the official state plans were released on Sept. 29. Thus far, 23 states—Virginia, Wyoming, Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa, New Jersey, West Virginia, New Mexico, Michigan, Maine, Montana, Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska, Tennessee, Nebraska, Maryland, Idaho, Texas and Minnesota—had announced their “opt-in” decisions, as did the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico territories.

Of these “opt-in” states and territories, two—Michigan and Arizona—issued an RFP exploring alternative-RAN options before announcing the “opt-in” decision.

AT&T will build the FirstNet RAN in “opt-in” states or territories at no cost to each jurisdiction, although local public-safety entities will be responsible for paying subscription costs and end-user device expenses. However, the law that established FirstNet stipulates that individual public-safety agencies and potential first-responder users are not required to subscribe to the FirstNet service.

AT&T officials have stated that deployment of LTE on the 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum licensed to FirstNet could begin as early as this year in certain parts of the country. Public-safety agencies in “opt-in” states are eligible to sign FirstNet contracts that give first responders priority access across AT&T’s commercial networks immediately and preemptive access by the end of the year.