FirstNet Team Makes Strong Network Pitch to APCO

"As somebody who’s worked on really difficult projects that had to be done in unreasonably short periods of time, it can be done, and it probably can be done quicker than most would think,” Kennedy told us. “At the same time, I don’t expect that ever to be simple or easy to just offhandedly say it can be done in two years or three years or something like that. I think what we have to do is not forget the urgency. To give these tools to public safety, we can’t wait 10 years for that. We have to do it much quicker.”

Multiple FirstNet officials pitched the network to APCO. General Manager Bill D'Agostino laid out network plans Tuesday (CD Aug 21 p7), and on Wednesday, FirstNet Board Chairman Sam Ginn and board member Jeff Johnson participated in a town hall meeting. Kennedy was on the ground for multiple days talking with stakeholders, he said. Stakeholders’ common theme is “we all need [FirstNet], quickly,” Kennedy said.

"You're going to see a lot of benchmarks being obtained” in 2014, Ginn told APCO Wednesday. “And a lot of progress. And I suspect you might see networks being established in the years 2015 and 2016. I'm very pleased with the progress of the board in the last 10 months.” He called 2014 a “foundation-setting” year for the network. States can opt out of joining the network, but Ginn hopes they don’t, he said. “What I would like to see is a nationwide network,” he said, with radio access networks in each state integrated into a FirstNet core. Ginn is hopeful that the FirstNet review of transparency concerns raised by board member Paul Fitzgerald earlier this year will be available in the next 30 days or so, he said.

"This is a network that doesn’t go down,” Johnson said. “To watch the discipline and focus of our industry partners on making sure this is mission critical, to hear them say this is not going to be a commercial grade network … to hear them insisting on things that should only be important to public safety is very rewarding to me.” He called the progress given the “constraints” an “astonishing” feat and praised the recent hires and growing staff. “Have we hit a bump or two? You bet. We're going to hit more in the future.” Johnson emphasized the need for creation of a “single platform,” which he argued was the intent of Congress.

FirstNet named Kennedy deputy general manager July 31. He emphasized his personal passion for public safety as the driving force for joining FirstNet leadership. “All police officers, firefighters and paramedics should have the same technological tools that your 13-year-old daughter might have,” he said. He called the position “more important than just a job.” Kennedy stressed staffing challenges FirstNet still faces. D'Agostino and Kennedy are filling multiple roles across “a lot of different issues until we get a chief administrative officer in place, and a CIO [chief information officer], and a permanent CTO [chief technology officer] and some of those key positions that we're doing,” Kennedy said. “And the good news is that many of those are posted publicly right now and are in the process of getting filled.”

Proposed FirstNet pilot projects, a new incarnation of long-suspended broadband stimulus grantees, “will help show us more real-life examples of what can be done, kind of the art of the possible,” Kennedy said. FirstNet has negotiated spectrum leases for pilot projects in Los Angeles and New Mexico, the latter of which Kennedy suspects will “move fairly quickly” due to its backhaul progress. The projects will help spur innovation and app-building, he said. He also pointed to the learning conditions built into the lease agreements, such as the Los Angeles provision about testing secondary responders, which he called “very important.” He declined comment on specifics of why FirstNet’s negotiations failed with three of seven projects, which the board revealed last week. “We kind of had two things going on at once -- you had the [Broadband Technology Opportunities Program] grant process and timelines, and you had FirstNet’s desire to see early builders and lessons learned that could come out of that,” Kennedy said, saying the projects ran out of time due to the grant deadlines. “They did run out of time, but I don’t think it was for lack of effort on FirstNet’s part or on the grantees’ part. … There were just some different issues in each of them that could not get to the finish line.”

Several of the project leaders spoke Tuesday on an APCO panel. Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications Systems Authority General Manager Barry Fraser described “a lot of progress” in months of FirstNet lease negotiation and said BayRICS intends “to get it done” by its latest deadline of Sept. 30.

"Because we've been on hold for 18 months, some sites are no longer available,” Fraser said, citing NTIA’s May 2012 suspension. “In one case, a building was built, right by one of our sites, which affected our coverage. … We're going to go back to work on our site configuration and perhaps rework some of our agreements currently in place. … We have to re-engage our public safety partners.” Meanwhile, Todd Early, the statewide interoperability coordinator with the Texas Department of Public Safety, emphasized the importance of identity management. He said the FirstNet technical team has been “very open to discussing this.” Mississippi Wireless Communication Commission Executive Officer Vicki Helfrich cited governance challenges and the balance she deems appropriate for the network: “It’s going to become evident and obvious that the state and local entities should be viewed as partners in this.” Ginn, speaking at the town hall meeting, said FirstNet wants the network to be locally controlled.

Kennedy described a medley of priorities. FirstNet received a “great” input of 54 responses to its first request for information on devices, one of many RFIs, and he predicted FirstNet would at the very least issue releases on what it’s finding. A new, more transparent FirstNet website will launch this fall, he said. FirstNet will post the state FirstNet points of contact online in a matter of weeks, Johnson said. Kennedy pointed to major public safety projects in his record, such as ensuring the security of the Olympics, and emphasized the importance of breaking down the projects and focusing “on what’s most important.” For FirstNet, that goal is easy, and should be about “giving those tools to public safety and putting it in their hand in a usable form as soon as we practically can,” he said. He praised FirstNet’s “great successes” and “two-way dialogue” in conducting summer regional sessions and meetings with all 56 states and territories. “That shows a great turn in the positive sense that we're getting out to talk to all those stakeholders and to make sure everyone knows why we're building FirstNet,” he said, urging stakeholders to focus on the “why” of FirstNet now rather than the “what.”

FirstNet now listens better, both to states and its public safety advisory committee, Johnson said. State meetings have taught FirstNet, especially given geographic specifics of sites like Alaska and Nevada, Johnson said. Ginn observed challenges in covering the water between Hawaii’s islands. FirstNet has yet to pick a network design, Johnson added. He encouraged APCO members to get involved with the states and make sure they are “in the room” as states consider opting in or out in the months to come.

FirstNet said in a news release Wednesday it signed a memorandum of understanding with APCO to “foster and promote useful and effective mobile applications … for public safety and emergency response purposes.” Following the MOU, “the parties intend to assist each other to identify recommended or vetted public safety or emergency response-related apps and share feedback on how apps are making a difference for public safety or could be improved,” FirstNet said. “The parties will also collaborate on ways to encourage the public safety community, the general public and the technology sector to visit AppComm, participate in focus groups, and respond to related information requests issued by FirstNet.”