Brian Hobson, FirstNet State Plans Technical Lead

As part of FirstNet’s consultation efforts, in coordination with NTIA’s State and Local Implementation Grant (SLIGP) program, we initiated a formal data collection process in March to better understand how the public safety community uses mobile data communications.  The data collection process was developed around four topics: coverage; users and operational areas; capacity planning; and current services and procurement vehicles.

Initial data submissions were due to FirstNet on September 30th, and we are pleased with both the number of submissions and quality of information.  To date, FirstNet has received data submissions from 54 states and territories, which includes responses from more than 11,600 public safety entities covering more than 1.6 million personnel.  FirstNet also received data from seven federal agencies.  

The FirstNet team has been working closely with the states and territories over the past month to review and validate their submissions.  Yesterday, we held a webinar with the state single points of contacts (SPOC) to discuss the data and how it will inform the Request for Proposal(s).  We also discussed how we are requesting additional data regarding the state plan review process.   For this activity, we are requesting information about potential barriers or issues and any steps that are necessary to authorize a governor to make the decision, prior to the submission of each state plan.  This data set will be due to FirstNet after the RFP release. 

I would like to thanks to the states, territories, and federal agencies for their cooperation over the last several months.  We look forward to continue working with them on these critical data collection efforts.

-Brian