New Hampshire committee conducts final meeting, preparing final report on FirstNet ‘opt-out’ risks for governor

A New Hampshire committee tasked with assessing the various risks associated with the state pursuing a potential FirstNet “opt-out” scenario completed its deliberations on Tuesday, and a report of the committee’s findings—without a recommendation—will be delivered to Gov. Chris Sununu, who must make his decision by Dec. 28.

In October, Sununu established the five-member Opt-Out Review Committee to assess whether the “opt-out” plan from Rivada Networks to deploy an alternative LTE radio access network (RAN) in the state to be part of FirstNet would be a feasible and sustainable model. After meeting with nationwide FirstNet contractor AT&T on Friday, the committee met Monday and Tuesday to finalize details of its report to the governor, according to John Stevens, New Hampshire’s single point of contact (SPOC).

Stevens, who is not on the review committee but attended the public portion of its meeting, confirmed that the report to Sununu is not expected to include a recommendation for the “opt-in/opt-out” decision but would outline the factors that the governor should consider when making the choice by Dec. 28.

“I certainly don’t have any indication at this point in time what that decision will be, other than the fact that I take great stock in the fact that New Hampshire has done its due diligence all the way through this process,” Stevens said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.

Indeed, New Hampshire was the first state to initiate a request for proposals (RFP) seeking bids from vendors willing to build and maintain an alternative RAN within the state. Last year, the state completed this procurement by selecting Rivada Networks as its vendor, if the governor decided to pursue the “opt-out” alternative.

If Sununu makes an “opt-out” choice by the Dec. 28 deadline, the state would need to negotiate the terms of a contract with Rivada Networks, because most details associated with the FirstNet system were not known when New Hampshire completed its RFP process.

Rivada Networks spokesman Brian Carney said he saw the Opt-Out Review Committee’s draft report, which included “very sensible” findings.

“The report does not—and will not—contain a recommendation to the governor,” Carney said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “As it currently reads now, it essentially says that there are risks [associated with the ‘opt-out’ process], and the state should—through the contracting process with Rivada—take steps to mitigate those risks and insulate the state from any financial exposure, if the governor decides to opt out.

“I think that they have done their homework. I think they understand the position that the state’s in. They understand the risks. They understand how the process works from here and what the correct and appropriate mechanisms are for mitigating those risks, and they’ve laid all of that out for the governor, as far as I can tell. So, I think they’ve done a great job.”

Under the law that established FirstNet, governors in all 56 states and territories have the choice of making an “opt-in” decision—accepting the FirstNet deployment plan and allowing AT&T to build the LTE radio access network (RAN) within the state’s borders at no cost to the state—or pursuing the “opt-out” alternative, which would require the state to be responsible for building and maintaining the RAN for the next 25 years.