Wireless carriers are key to successful FirstNet RFP bid. Which are interested?

While Sprint and T-Mobile are not expected to be a primary carrier on an offeror team, some industry sources believe they could be part of an arrangement if multiple carriers were involved. One question about both carriers is whether foreign ownership—from Japan, in the case of Sprint, and Germany, in the case of T-Mobile—would be accepted by Congress and the administration when potentially sensitive national-security data is expected to be transmitted on the FirstNet system.

Carrier combinations—Some have claimed that teaming that involves multiple carriers could be the best solution, in terms of sharing risk and providing coverage options. The idea of a consortium of regional carriers working together has been mentioned as an option, but there is no indication that such an effort is being made today.

Now, some carrier partnerships appear to be mandated in the RFP to achieve rural-coverage requirements, but combinations between carriers that have overlapping commercial territories—and compete in a cutthroat business—is not expected, according to most industry sources.

Verizon—Perhaps the most intriguing carrier in the process is Verizon, which has not made any public indications of its interest in the FirstNet opportunity thus far. But that has not prevented others from speculating; in fact, one analyst has declared Verizon as the odds-on favorite to win the FirstNet bid.

There are host of reasons why it would make sense for Verizon to consider a FirstNet play. Like AT&T, Verizon has the assets and pedigree to be the lead carrier needed to meet the requirements in the FirstNet RFP. Like AT&T, Verizon benefits greatly from the fact that a FirstNet deal would not count against the carrier’s spectrum-cap calculations. Verizon and AT&T also helped public safety lobby for the Band 14 spectrum now licensed to FirstNet.

In addition, Verizon which holds the license to the Band 13 spectrum that is close to the FirstNet’s Band 14 airwaves. Controlling more than 40 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band would put Verizon in a unique position in terms of equipment efficiencies, although some technologists argue that the advantages are not as great in today’s world of multiband devices and LTE carrier aggregation.

Others have noted that Verizon may not like the idea of another carrier working with FirstNet, because building a new nationwide network on spectrum that is so close to Verizon’s airwaves could become a potential ongoing interference headache as FirstNet is deployed over multiple years. If Verizon built FirstNet, it would be able to coordinate and optimize spectrum use and limit interference.

Once again, this technical matter is not something I pretend to understand as truth or fiction—I’m a journalist, not an RF engineer—but it is a matter that has been raised.

Those who believe Verizon will not bid on FirstNet point to financial issues, noting that the carrier just spent a bunch of money on AWS spectrum last year after paying a whopping $130 billion to buy out Vodafone’s stake in the company in 2014. Others claim that any carrier that can spend that much money to buy out Vodafone can pay to build a FirstNet system that could provide long-term strategic benefits to the company.

Regardless of the company name, the important thing is that at least one qualified carrier be part of a viable bid, so this public-safety broadband network can become a reality. We do not need a repeat of 2008, when no qualifying bids were submitted for the 700 MHz D Block, which was tied to public-safety obligations. The fact that AT&T and Rivada have expressed interest publicly is encouraging; hopefully, a proposal will emerge that satisfies all of FirstNet lofty goals.