Five years later, public safety can see a light at the end of FirstNet tunnel

Tomorrow marks the five-year anniversary of President Barack Obama signing into law the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012. At the time, the headline-grabbing aspects of the legislation were an extension of the Social Security payroll tax cut and myriad initiatives designed to provide assistance to the large unemployed population.

Today, the tax-cut and unemployment benefits from this law largely have been forgotten. However, a generally overlooked feature of the bill finally is on the verge of becoming reality: FirstNet’s nationwide public-safety broadband network.

Depending on the outcome of a lawsuit being heard by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, FirstNet could name its nationwide contractor within the next few weeks (if the court rules in favor of the U.S. government and Rivada Mercury does not appeal the case), or we could be waiting several months before an award is made (the outcome under almost every other scenario).

However, no matter what decision the court makes, some are probably saying, “It’s been five years since Congress passed the law creating FirstNet, and there is nothing to show for it.”

On the surface, it is an accurate statement. Today, public-safety entities cannot subscribe to a FirstNet broadband service, and deployment of the proposed network on 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum likely will not begin until next year in most parts of the country.

Given the fact that it has been 15 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and nine years since the failed D Block auction—the government’s first real attempt to provide a public-safety broadband network—there are understandable levels of frustration within the first-responder community. Deployment of this network should have begun by now, many will argue.

That certainly was the vision of Sam Ginn and Craig Farrill, FirstNet’s original chairman and vice chairman, respectively. Under their leadership, an outline of a network plan was unveiled at the first meeting of the FirstNet board. That approach was criticized by some as being hasty and lacking the appropriate input from public safety, but things changed dramatically in March 2014.

At that time, the FirstNet board approved a roadmap, which was followed months later by Sue Swenson being named chairwoman. Since the roadmap was adopted, FirstNet has shown steady progress, including a significant amount of outreach. There were more than 40 steps in the roadmap, and FirstNet methodically has completed almost all of them. Most of these steps have been finished within the planned timetable, and the delays that have surfaced typically have been only a matter of a few days or weeks.

More important, FirstNet managed to do something that many considered impossible by establishing a framework for its network that meets even the most challenging aspects of its enabling legislation.

Remember, the 2012 legislation calls for FirstNet to receive $7 billion to build a nationwide public-safety broadband network and mandates that the system be financially self-sustaining. While there are debates about how much a nationwide network costs—some have claimed as little as $15 billion, while others have estimated as much as $49 billion—there is no question that the figure is significantly more than the amount allocated to FirstNet. And that buildout total does not even address the cost to make technological upgrades to 5G and beyond.