FirstNet’s Kennedy talks about RFP process, 911 collaboration

FirstNet is completing request-for-proposal (RFP) processes and plans to seek public comments on some of the organization’s rules and legal interpretations that will impact the proposed nationwide broadband network for public safety, FirstNet Deputy General Manager TJ Kennedy said during a speech today.

Kennedy—the top FirstNet staff member since Bill D’Agostino resigned as general manager last month—delivered the remarks this morning at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) Broadband Summit in Washington, D.C. A FirstNet spokesman shared Kennedy’s prepared remarks with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.

During the past two months, FirstNet’s board has approved a program roadmap, the FirstNet finance committee has approved funding for efforts to implement the roadmap, and FirstNet has released a package that states and territories must complete before scheduling initial consultations with FirstNet. Today, Kennedy shed some light on the organization’s progress toward releasing an RFP—something public-safety-communications vendors have eagerly anticipated since Congress established FirstNet in February 2012.

“We’re completing RFP processes for both comprehensive network solutions, [as well as] equipment and services that could substitute for—or complement—a comprehensive network proposal,” according to Kennedy’s prepared remarks. “We’ve been conducting market research to better understand the assets that all partners can bring to the table to better serve our country’s public-safety community.”

Congress established FirstNet as “independent entity” within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and specified in legislation that FirstNet is exempt from disclosure laws, such as the Freedom of Information Act. However, in areas that are not specified by Congress, there have been debates whether FirstNet should act more like a government agency or an independent, company-like entity.