Swenson says FirstNet received bids, system cannot be ‘just any other network’

SAN DIEGO—Now that FirstNet has received bids from offeror teams willing to build and maintain a nationwide public-safety broadband network, the organization must prepare to be “absolutely excellent” in its service to its first-responder users, FirstNet Chairwoman Sue Swenson said yesterday.

Swenson has had extensive experience in the commercial wireless industry but said that the public-safety mission being served by the FirstNet will require the system to be “far better” than any commercial network in existence today.

“On the FirstNet network, seconds and minutes matter—it’s a matter of life and death,” Swenson said during the opening keynote address for the annual Public-Safety Broadband Stakeholder Meeting conducted by Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR). “I just want to raise that to say that this is not just any other network.”

FirstNet needs to be able to respond to public safety’s communications needs quickly, so it is important that the organization does not transform into a large bureaucracy, Swenson said.

“What it doesn’t mean is having committees,” she said. “What it doesn’t mean is having layers and layers of management. We need a flat organization. We need to be nimble, we need to be agile, we need to be proactive and responsive.

“I’m just going to put that out there to say that’s going to be the focus that I’m going to be having with the FirstNet team and with all the people around who are supporting FirstNet.”

Indeed, this philosophy is reflected in the job titles given to FirstNet’s top management, Swenson said. Mike Poth is FirstNet’s CEO and TJ Kennedy is the organization’s president—job titles that are typical in the private-sector companies but normally are not found in entities associated with the federal government.

This is appropriate, because FirstNet is an initiative that has a very different history and purpose than typical organizations associated with the federal government, Swenson said.

“FirstNet exists because public safety demanded it,” Swenson said. “It’s not a federally mandated program. It’s a public-safety program.”

Swenson cited several of FirstNet’s accomplishments during the past two years, culminating in the receipt of “bids” to its request for proposals (RFP) on May 31. Although most industry sources have expressed their belief that FirstNet received multiple proposals from offeror teams, Swenson’s statement was the first acknowledgement of this by a FirstNet official.