FirstNet shares more details about state-plan process during the next year

LAS VEGAS—FirstNet plans to share public-safety broadband deployment plans with officials from each state and territory after a contractor is selected, but some proprietary information will need to be confidential and only limited changes will be considered during this period, FirstNet officials said during IWCE 2016 last week.

FirstNet officials have pledged for years that they would work with states and territories on an ongoing basis, and this plan was reiterated during numerous conference sessions last week at IWCE 2016 in Las Vegas. After a FirstNet contractor award is announced—the target date is Nov. 1—a draft plan for each state and territory will be delivered and explained to select officials in the jurisdiction.

During this period before the final state plans are distributed to all 56 states and territories—something the FirstNet request for proposal (RFP) hopes to complete by April 1, 2017—state officials will have an opportunity to suggest changes to the draft plan that can be incorporated in the final state plan. But FirstNet officials stressed that that such recommendations could be implemented only if they do not impact the core economics of the contract between FirstNet and the contractor.

“The awardee—our partner—will already have given us their approach for the 56 states and territories,” FirstNet CEO Mike Poth said during an IWCE session. “We’re going to quickly incorporate that, and the state-plans team is already trying to pre-populate some of the standard information.

“The intent of getting the draft plan to the states is so they can get a preview of what that looks like, but we want to manage expectations. It won’t be blank sheets of paper, to sit down and say, ‘OK state, how do you want to go about doing this?’ and then do another draft [state plan] and bring it back. You can probably expect that 80% or 90% of what is in that draft state plan will be in the final [state plan].

FirstNet President TJ Kennedy echoed this sentiment.

“There is going to be an award, and there is going to be a plan that was based on what was in the reading room and the consultation that has occurred, and it’s the best plan that winning offeror has put forward for each state,” Kennedy said. “It’s going to be the best plan that they have signed up to go and deploy.

“There will be some discussion about that draft plan and there certainly will be some questions, but the amount of things that can be changed will be limited, because there’s a contract in place. So, it’s not a free for all or a blank page, as Mike put it.”