By Mike Poth, FirstNet Chief Executive Officer

A lot of hard work has gone into getting us to this point, and I am appreciative of all of the people that have assisted us, including public safety leaders who advocated for the network, our own Public Safety Advisory Committee, state, territory, tribal, and local participants including the FirstNet state single point of contacts, FirstNet’s Board and personnel, folks on Capitol Hill and at the White House, and many others. 

We have also had tremendous assistance from the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and other federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice.  At this stage there is still a lot of work to do, but through an open and competitive RFP process, we are more confident than ever of success.    

FirstNet’s mission under the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (the Act) is to ensure the establishment of the NPSBN.  In order to achieve this goal, the network must be a robust and enduring tool for the public safety community.  FirstNet must ensure that the network is operated, maintained and improved throughout its lifetime, including taking a leadership role in the establishment of new technology and services on behalf of our stakeholders, the public safety community. 

We do not know today what technology the public safety community may require 20 years from now to carry out its mission.  But we can, and are, planning for the future of the network.  At FirstNet, we want to be ready for and encourage innovation that will bring better applications, devices and services to the public safety community, and we want to invest in the NPSBN to ensure its readiness for whatever may come.

How do we do this? 

Under the Act, Congress provided FirstNet alone the ability to collect and retain funds for the purpose of making expenditures to support the NPSBN.  Indeed, the Act specifically requires such reinvestment.  As such, only FirstNet is authorized to utilize these funds and they are not subject to re-allocation from FirstNet for any other purposes.  These amounts will be used to pay FirstNet’s overhead costs, for reinvestment in the NPSBN, and, more generally, to support advances or enhancements in public safety communications.  This means that FirstNet will continue to operate even in the case of a government-wide shutdown resulting from any delay in approving the annual appropriations bills and makes available a long-term funding stream to provide confidence to NPSBN stakeholders that the network will endure.  

The funding resilience that the Act provides is an important aspect of fulfilling FirstNet’s mission.  That mission also requires that the NPSBN be robust, hardened, and enduring.  The FirstNet network must be a long term tool for the public safety community, and services provided through the network must continue to be meaningful and meet the needs of public safety now and in the future.   

To achieve these requirements, FirstNet has and will continue to take steps to ensure the longevity and relevance of the NPSBN for the public safety community.  For example, with renewals, the term of the agreement resulting from the NPSBN RFP is anticipated to be up to 25 years, which will allow the awardee to confidently invest in the network and in the provision of services to the public safety community, while also serving its commercial users with excess network capacity.  Market forces will undoubtedly self-mandate continued awardee investment and upgrades in the network, including implementation of 3GPP standards and other standards as they develop and advance throughout the life of the network. 

In addition, under the Act, FirstNet is able to collect amounts to advance or enhance public safety communications, while certain resources collected by FirstNet, such as fees collected under the agreement with the NPSBN awardee in excess of FirstNet’s overhead costs, are specifically earmarked under the Act for “constructing, maintaining, operating, or improving” the NPSBN.  This means that the public-private arrangements anticipated under the Act will promote the enduring nature of the NPSBN through direct reinvestment in the network throughout its lifetime.       

It is by statutory design that the NPSBN will be an enduring tool for the public safety community.  In passing the legislation, Congress understood, and in fact designed, the unique relationships between FirstNet, the awardee, the network, and the reinvestment of funds resulting from use of the spectrum by the awardee, to ensure network that will be managed and operated for public safety to keep the American people safe and secure for decades to come.