FirstNet, AT&T release state plans, governors to make ‘opt-in/opt-out’ decisions by mid-December

Public-safety organizations in certain states could begin using a prioritized FirstNet service on AT&T’s commercial network very soon, if their governors decide to accept the initial state plans delivered today by FirstNet that outline the deployment of the much-anticipated nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN).

“It’s really a very significant moment for public safety,” FirstNet President TJ Kennedy said during a press conference. “The delivery of state plans is a key milestone we’ve been working toward for years. I think it really shows the amount of great work done by public safety, the states, FirstNet and AT&T to deliver on that promise.

“At the end of the day, we believe that this FirstNet solution is the best value, low risk and that it’s also [been] vetted through a rigorous review process that we had during the evaluation phase. Even more importantly, now that we’re translating that solution into a state plan, we believe it should meet the needs of public safety.”

Chris Sambar, senior vice president for AT&T-FirstNet, echoed this sentiment.

“AT&T is very excited about the opportunity to get these plans out there for the states,” Sambar said during the press conference. “We think we have a tremendous value proposition to offer—in conjunction with FirstNet—for this national public-safety broadband network. And we’re very confident that the vast majority—if not all—states are going to opt in”

Distributed via restricted online portals, the state plans are filled with key information, including descriptions of proposed services, coverage and subscription pricing for each state and territory. These state portals will be updated with information as it becomes available, according to Rich Reed, FirstNet’s chief customer officer.

Future updates will include how much each state would have to pay FirstNet in an “opt-out” scenario—an option that calls for the state to be responsible for building the LTE radio access network (RAN) instead of FirstNet—for use of FirstNet’s LTE core and licensed spectrum is not available today but will be in the future. That information is not included on state portals today, because FirstNet officials want to ensure that the information is aligned with policy decisions being made by the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Reed said.

“States are very excited and interested about having the details of their solution, so we wanted to make sure that we got that information in the hands of the states as quickly as possible, even though a couple of the salient elements are missing,” Reed said. “We will update the state plans as the FCC and NTIA complete their processes.

“One of the reason we are using a portal is that we knew that [each state plan] was a document that needs to be updated on a regular basis, and we’re going to do that. We will notify the states about both the time and the content that changes every time we make an update.”

On Thursday, the FCC is scheduled to vote on an order that that is designed to address how the agency will meet most of its FirstNet-related obligations. There is no timetable for NTIA to take similar actions, according to FirstNet officials.

The detailed state-plan information is available only to selected individuals in each state or territory that signed nondisclosure agreements. For the general public, information about FirstNet can be found at www.firstnet.com. Subscription pricing packages are not available yet on the website, but visitors are encouraged to “check back soon” for more information about rate plans.