When do people ‘need to know’ about FirstNet? The sooner, the better

Sharing information on a “need to know” basis is a fundamental tenet of communications within many organizations, for understandable reasons. By informing personnel only what they need to know to do their jobs—at the time they need to know it—people are allowed to focus on the items they can impact, without being distracted by related items they cannot control and/or may never happen.

With this in mind, some states and territories have provided little outreach and education about FirstNet, the federal initiative to build and operate a nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN). Sure, the single point of contact (SPOC) for the state/territory received regular briefings from FirstNet with the expectation that the information would be shared with relevant state officials, but local outreach was not considered a priority.

The reason was simple: There was not much to tell local officials for a long time.

Even in states where local outreach has been a priority since FirstNet was established four years ago, state representatives have heard grumblings from attendees at the meetings, because no one could answer the questions that local officials wanted to know, such as:

• What kind of service will FirstNet provide?
• When will the FirstNet system be built?
• When will FirstNet service be provided to my jurisdiction?
• How much will the service cost?

Without answers to these questions, local outreach efforts were considered a waste of time in some states. There has been FirstNet progress to share during the past two years, but it is questionable whether this information was something that local officials “need to know.” Limiting expenditures associated with outreach about FirstNet may have made sense, given the limited funding states have for this purpose.

But these circumstances have changed dramatically during the past several months, and those who “need to know” about FirstNet has expanded considerably. FirstNet should not be something that only the SPOC team and a handful of other people in a state are monitoring.

FirstNet has released its request for proposals (RFP) and bids are due in six weeks. If all goes well, answers to all of the above bulleted questions could be available by the end of this year or early next year.

In fact, we’re only a year away from a FirstNet-branded service being offered in most of the nation, according to the RFP. It won’t be the 700 MHz Band 14 service with full preemption capability that public safety has been anticipating—and that needs to be a big point of education—but it should provide a smooth transition to that dedicated network as it is deployed during the next several years.

Local and state elected officials need to be aware of FirstNet—what it is, and what it is not—so they can make intelligent budget decisions and procurement choices for their public-safety agencies. They should understand the risks/rewards associated with the opt-out alternative, so they can provide input to the governor, who will decide whether FirstNet or the state/territory will build and operate the radio access network (RAN) in its jurisdiction for the next 25 years.