Three years after its creation, it is time for FirstNet to begin making key decisions

“I always said this entity was sort of backwards in the way that it was created, although I can see why, in terms of it being a federal entity,” Gomez said. “Normally [with a corporate startup], you get one guy or two guys, they have an idea, they start to develop their idea, they shop it around, and they get some financing. Eventually, they might create a company, go public, and then they’ll get a board. All of that takes years; this isn’t something that's done in a couple of months.

“When you think of it that way, they’re really on par with where a lot of major companies would be, except that it wouldn’t be quite so public. It wouldn’t be until they start getting financing or try to go public that you would see publicly that someone is trying to put a major entity together. But it is what it is, and FirstNet has had to do everything in a very open manner with a lot of expectations from stakeholders.”

In fact, during D’Agostino’s first board meeting, FirstNet board member Paul Fitzgerald—the sheriff of Story County, Iowa—made several allegations: that FirstNet was not operating in a transparent manner, was not consulting public safety appropriately, and was being driven too much by commercial-wireless interests on the board.

Fitzgerald’s allegations led to two investigations being conducted, one by a committee of FirstNet board members and another by the U.S. Department of Commerce Inspector General. Meanwhile, public-safety-outreach and state-consultation efforts were increased noticeably.

“I was really happy to see them put in place a strong consultation process,” Gomez said. “I think one of their mistakes early on was not starting out with more consultation and more outreach. Hopefully, they have been able to respond to the criticism of that original time when they did not do more outreach and consultation.”

Some of the delays in outreach and consultation may have occurred because FirstNet board members were more focused on clarifying its legal standing as an independent authority under NTIA, but another problem was the lack of staffing in the early days, Gomez said.

“They should have opened the doors and started listening early on, but their instincts were, ‘No, let’s figure out what we need to do here, and then we’ll go out and talk to folks.’ But it’s easy to Monday-morning quarterback,” she said. “NTIA tried to provide as much support as it could, but NTIA’s also a very small organization. It was a lack of resources and them trying to get themselves in a place where they felt like they had something to talk about.”

Under the leadership of new Chairwoman Sue Swenson, FirstNet has sought greater input from its Public Safety Advisory Committee and has implemented a robust state-consultation process.

In addition, board members have become better prepared to tackle the massive challenge, according to Charles Dowd, former FirstNet board member. Board members with public-safety backgrounds have learned some of the technological and economic realities of building and maintaining a nationwide broadband network, while board members with commercial-network experience are now more familiar with first-responder needs, he said.

“Very, very early on in the FirstNet process, there were probably some concerns that this thing would turn out looking too commercial. I don’t think that will happen,” Dowd said. “I think the board and [the FirstNet] staff understands that this has to meet public safety’s requirements, or public safety will be unhappy.”