FirstNet Process Leaves Stakeholders Unhappy with What One Calls ‘Cone of Silence’

There’s “a cone of silence dropped around the process” of FirstNet, said Nokia Siemens Networks Global Head of Technology Policy Brian Hendricks. He was Senate Commerce Committee staff director during the drafting of what became last year’s spectrum law. There’s “the sense that we're sort of fumbling around in the dark for the light switch -- and that’s a concern,” he said. “The visibility issue may be a part of the problem,” agreed Verizon Wireless Vice President of National Security and Public Safety Policy Don Brittingham. Textron Chief Engineer Paul Hertzberg cautioned against “the invisible nature of what is going on,” the source of “a lot of the consternation.” There’s a portion of FirstNet board members from the “corporate world” that “doesn’t know a thing about the public safety world,” said Andy Seybold, a wireless industry analyst. Applied Communications Sciences Executive Director William Andrle said the “black box thing will not get us” to a built-out FirstNet, and one must be nearly omniscient to understand what’s happening with the FirstNet board. “We've been forced to begin assuming what the deployment objectives will look like,” said Hendricks. “This is not the way this should be proceeding.” There’s “no indication” that NTIA or the FirstNet board has considered the hundreds of pages of notice of inquiry responses from last fall or of any follow-up, he said.

"No one knows who’s on first and who’s on second,” said FBI-Law Enforcement Executive Development Association Executive Director Tom Stone. “People don’t know what’s going on. … They've not been asked for input. It’s really bad because there’s a big disconnect between FirstNet and law enforcement.” First Vice President Greg Hamilton said there are tech-savvy members of law enforcement who would be “biting at the bit to be a part of something like this.” He and Stone said they want more outreach and are ready to open more dialogue.

"It is not uncommon that the time necessary to stand up a new enterprise is misconstrued as a lack of desire to listen and discuss our plans,” said Jeff Johnson, the FirstNet board member leading outreach, in a statement Monday. “Nothing could be further from the truth. We need to first build an organization that can process our listening into meaningful input, and we must focus on listening to our users (states and first responders) before reaching out to the vendor community,” said Johnson, Western Fire Chiefs Association CEO: “We are anxious to kick off a broader dialogue with the vending community in” Q2. FirstNet board members have met with stakeholders and are “aggressively” planning more meetings in months ahead, Johnson said, calling this “a critical part of this process.” The board next meets Feb. 12.

Don’t judge the FirstNet board “prematurely” given its small staff and the challenge, cautioned AT&T Federal Regulatory Vice President Stacey Black. FirstNet Board Chairman Sam Ginn and others recognize “you can’t build a network like this talking to 50 different states,” and are handling the process “very rationally” and in a “business-like” way, he said. The board is beginning to realize it'll “need to come up with something unique to make this happen at all,” Black said, citing “incremental” progress. He predicted a lot of action at the February FirstNet board meeting and pointed to NTIA’s search for a FirstNet general manager. Sprint Nextel Senior Manager Vandana Tandon credited the board’s initial proposal as “really the way to go” and “a good job” so far. The board needs to “take a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down approach” and explore public-private partnerships, she said. There’s still confusion in these early stages, said Tandon. “A lot of the questions arising around here are because we don’t know what’s really going on.”

"There simply isn’t enough money to build this network,” Black said. Several other stakeholders agreed. Hendricks said those fears aren’t the same as more thorough “analysis,” and the “choices you make will dictate how far the funds go.” Cost factors into both the business plan and the hardening process required for the network, the stakeholders said. Cost of hardening could increase the cost of a cell site by 40 percent, Black said, suggesting there are different standards of hardening that may be applied. AT&T has standard cell sites with eight-hour backup, uninterruptible power supply and no redundancy otherwise. The carrier also has what it calls critical cell sites, located at higher elevation and with fuel tanks and redundant backhaul, which better serve areas like hospitals, airports and police stations, Black said. “Clearly, FirstNet is going to have to make some compromises,” said Verizon’s Brittingham, agreeing with Black that a clearer definition of hardening is needed.

Brittingham stressed that the board should serve public safety first. The board seems to be looking at “how to build a commercial network that may serve a variety of needs,” he said, calling it “the wrong approach.” Major concerns included the type of network it should be, its core, the radio access network, potential partnerships, fees for using the system and ways to serve different types of geography, with little consensus reached, panelists said. “This is national critical infrastructure -- it will be a target,” said Northrop Grumman Chief Architect Mark Adams.

The resources of states and utilities should be leveraged, panelists said, several pointing to the seven suspended NTIA public safety stimulus grant projects. The agency suspended those networks in May over interoperability concerns. The existing Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grants “are an opportunity where investments have already been made, public safety stakeholders are already involved,” said Raytheon Director of Public Safety and Security Patrick Fines. “We should take the opportunity to leverage those and evaluate in a smaller limited environment what the pitfalls and capabilities are, before rolling it out on a national level.” Those grantees “are that opportunity for launching pads to get this thing going forward,” said Executive Vice President Carl Aron of RCC Consultants. He referred to the “plain illegality” of FirstNet, alleging its failure to meet Title XI obligations by not taking into account state and local efforts and proper consultation. FirstNet board staff met with suspended BTOP grantees in the last two months (CD Dec 12 p1). Utilities want a voice, said Utilities Telecom Council Deputy General Counsel Brett Kilbourne.

"This whole notion of [state] opt out is just really unfortunate,” Brittingham said. He recommended collaboration and a “sense of urgency” but not hastiness. “Inaction is our worst enemy here,” he said. “We should not be debating these issues for the next 10 years.”