FirstNet Critical to Utilities, But Timing a Key Question, UTC Official Says
Utility companies want to work with public safety to build FirstNet, but need certainty and could turn elsewhere if the network takes too long to construct, said Brett Kilbourne, vice president of the Utilities Telecom Council, on a Broadband Breakfast webinar Tuesday. Building FirstNet will be comparable to building the first Transcontinental Railroad, will take at least 10 years to complete and will cost some $20 billion, predicted Bill Vallee, Connecticut’s broadband policy coordinator.
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"The utility companies are interested in trying to partner sooner rather than later,” Kilbourne said. “The longer this process drags out, utility companies are going to be making investments in others areas.” Utilities don’t have suitable spectrum to meet their current and future needs, he said, but can’t wait forever on the 700 MHz spectrum.
Utilities bring a lot to the table, which should a “big selling point” for partnering with public safety, Kilbourne said. Utilities have secured radio sites and millions of poles that could be used in the first responder network, he said. “We have backhaul facilities, fiber, running to even some remote locations. Backhaul is going to be key when you talk about 700 MHz broadband infrastructure.” Utility antenna sites also tend to have more robust backup power than commercial cell sites, he said. Kilbourne said utility crews can be used to build and maintain FirstNet facilities, and utilities are stable financially. Utilities “are not going away,” he said.
The Transcontinental Railroad took a decade to build 150 years ago, Vallee said. “I joked with the board members of FirstNet that basically they're building the Transcontinental Railroad,” he said. “I don’t think this will be any shorter or even less difficult than that.” The network will be harder to build in some places than others, he said, saying FirstNet will have to build around the national radio quiet zone in West Virginia established by the FCC in the 1950s to protect sensitive electronic equipment located at two facilities there. “They're not allowed to have any radios within 13,000 square-miles,” he said.
Silos in public safety remain a problem, Vallee said. “You may have a police or fire chief you will say, ‘You know, I've always bought the radios and I'm not going to give that up,'” he said. “There’s a lot of transitional issues that will have to be dealt with.” Traditional land-mobile radio will remain part of the picture, especially given the huge amount invested in traditional first responder radios, he said. “We still need file cabinets even though we all want to be on file servers,” he said. “It took decades for electricity to supplant water power, as well you all know, during the industrial revolution. It took many decades for phones to kill off the telegraph.”
Connecticut was one of the first five states to get funding to prepare for buildout of the network, and the state’s plan will be finished “in a month or two,” Vallee said. Like the Transcontinental Railroad, FirstNet is critical, he said. “They built the railroad in record time and it was an incredible project,” he said. “Where will the money come from? … You find the money.”