Top carriers may have reservations about participating in FirstNet bid, analyst says
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Top carriers may have reservations about participating in FirstNet bid, analyst says
In addition, FirstNet’s draft RFP proposes that public-safety user on the FirstNet system receive “most favored nation” pricing. What’s unclear is whether any potential bidder has a commercially available offering that can be used as a comparison point to the services that FirstNet public-safety users would receive, according to Elaine Dukes, a former chief procurement officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who is now the principal for the consulting firm of Elaine Dukes & Associates.
“The principle [of ‘most favored nation’ pricing] is that you have to offer—for commercial items—pricing to the government that is equal or better to the pricing you would offer to your best customer,” Dukes said. “If it’s true that it’s not being offered to anyone else, then it may not be an issue.”
Phil Zion, director of broadband initiative and intel systems at General Dynamics Mission Systems—the sponsor of the webinar—said he is encouraged that FirstNet is meeting the goals of its roadmap and believes that the RFP process will result in bids that are beneficial to all stakeholders.
“It is realistic, in the sense that FirstNet, industry, public safety and state and local are all pulling together,” Zion said. “It can be done. I think that, if there is unity of purpose and unity of effort, it is a realistic goal.”
I don’t think this is as big
I don’t think this is as big a concern as Mr. Rehbehn raises here. The fact of the matter is that FirstNet needs a viable network partner to help build out its 700 MHz D block spectrum. The carriers are in the best position to do so, say on a contractual basis. They are not going to blend commercial cellular traffic with public safety signals. In fact, neither party wants that. Moreover, large and small carriers alike have experience in managing different types of wireless traffic on different bands at the same time. So brand dilution is not likely a problem. I’m more concerned about whether there is a big enough capex budget to build out the entire network that FirstNet would like to have.