Letter to Governors Aims To Open Lines of Communication With States, FirstNet Says
FirstNet quietly sent letters to all U.S. states, D.C. and several territories in mid-October requesting a meeting with their leaders and clarifying information about opting in to the network, revenue usage and details about the use of the network itself.…
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In the letter sent to New York, FirstNet said the "financial, operational and contractual risk of the network buildout and operations within New York would be the responsibility of FirstNet and its partner(s)." No revenue can be redistributed in the state for any other uses, the letter said. There is also no requirement that any public safety organization use the network once it's built, the letter said. While many reports have focused on the revenue issue the letter mentioned, that isn't new, having been discussed at the October board meeting (see [Ref:1510020045]). The information about how states must reinvest all resulting revenue from their own radio access networks back into the nationwide network was a part of Resolution 69, which was approved at the meeting. "The correspondence was an important next step in our consultation with the states and territories now that we have completed the initial round of consultation meetings with them," a FirstNet spokesman said.