AT&T, FirstNet officials shed light on near-term implementation efforts
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AT&T, FirstNet officials shed light on near-term implementation efforts
Tucker clarified that a FirstNet public-safety customer will need a “sponsor” from a public-safety agency to be approved for capabilities such as priority and preemption.
“Someone’s not going to be able to walk into the retail store and say, ‘I’m Fireman Bob. Give me 20 [FirstNet public-safety] phones,” Tucker said. “It’s not going to happen.’”
During the same panel, Ehrin Ehlert—FirstNet's Region 4 lead—addressed the current vision for a public-safety agency implementing FirstNet services.
“We’re still working on the access control and things of that nature,” Ehlert said. “But the most simplistic view —the 1,000-foot view—would that, when an agency subscribes to FirstNet, they will designate somewhat of an account manager that will have the ability—the role, if you will—within that portal to provision devices, set priority levels and things of that nature. But the specifics of that are still being worked out.”
Currently, the www.firstnet.com website—available for anyone to view—has a “Rate Plans” tab, but it does not include any pricing information. Even within the state-plan portals, the rate plans quoted are “rack pricing” that represents the “worst-case scenario” financially for subscribers, Tucker said. Those prices are negotiable, he said.
“It’s no different than it is today in how we negotiate pricing with agencies,” Tucker said. “Once the governors decide to opt-in, it’s then our job to meet with the individual agency to negotiate that pricing to convince them to come on as a subscriber.”
Tucker also explained why AT&T does not plan to offer lower-cost plans to volunteer firefighters and other volunteer public-safety personnel, particularly in a BYOD scenario.
“Obviously, volunteer fire agencies—even some professionally funded departments—have funding shortages,” Tucker said. “Everybody does, to some degree.
“But most people already have a cell phone. If you are part of a 20-member volunteer fire department with no budget and they don’t provide cell phones today, [then] more than likely, all 20 of those volunteer firefighters have cell phones today. That’s the reason that we are making it available for everyone who is in the public-safety arena who is credentialed, to take their own device and become a subscriber to FirstNet, whether they buy a new device or whether they bring their current device onto the network.
“It’s a competitive process on our part, and we are obviously very incentivized to make sure that we make that a good business decision for every subscriber, whether you are the city of New York or a volunteer in a five-man department.”