FirstNet board to consider draft RFP, ‘public-safety-entity’ notice during special meeting on Friday
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FirstNet board to consider draft RFP, ‘public-safety-entity’ notice during special meeting on Friday
Gathering input to determine the criteria for a “public-safety entity” that can receive prioritized access to the FirstNet system is the expected purpose of the follow-up public notice to be considered on Friday. Last year, FirstNet conducted a public-notice proceeding on the same topic, but it received a wide variety of responses, even from public-safety organizations.
While there is consensus that EMS, fire and law-enforcement personnel meet the “public-safety entity” definition, there is considerable debate whether others—notably, government or other critical-infrastructure personnel—also should be eligible to receive priority access during certain circumstances.
During last year’s proceeding, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) supported a narrow “public-safety entity” definition that limited priority access to the FirstNet system to the traditional public-safety groups of EMS, fire and law-enforcement personnel. In contrast, the National Public-Safety Telecommunications (NPSTC) expressed its support for a broader public-safety entity definition that could allow entities like utilities to get priority access to the FirstNet system.
Analysts and industry observers have stated that a very narrow “public-safety entity” definition could limit the FirstNet user base to a point that it would be difficult to develop an economically sustainable business model and could hamper interoperable communications during an emergency—for instance, the ability for a utility to communicate with law enforcement during a power outage.
On the other hand, the same sources have noted that a very broad “public-safety entity” definition could result in too much contention for FirstNet bandwidth, which would defeat the purpose of creating a dedicated first-responder network. In addition, depending on the structure, a broad definition could result in FirstNet—a government-backed authority—essentially competing with private entities like commercial carriers for prime enterprise customers.