By Jeff Bratcher, Acting Chief Technology Officer
The FirstNet Chief Technology Office (CTO), Program Management Office, and User Advocacy teams hosted members of the FirstNet Board and leadership team at our technical headquarters last week in Boulder, CO, to discuss a range of topics, including CTO staffing, cyber security, and our work on the upcoming Request for Proposal(s) (RFP). We also had the opportunity to participate in Band 14 LTE technology demonstrations conducted by the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Program at the U.S. Department of Commerce labs across town.
Joining us in Boulder were Technology Committee Members Barry Boniface (Chair) and Neil Cox. We were also pleased to have FirstNet Board Vice Chair Jeff Johnson, new board member Ed Horowitz, and CEO Mike Poth in attendance.
We began with a series of technical briefings regarding the technical team work with the Public Safety Advisory Committee’s (PSAC) task teams in the areas of public safety grade, devices, quality of service, priority and preemption. Members of the RFP team also provided an update on the Special Notice and the draft RFP questions and answers, comments, and operational architecture submissions. Our new board members engaged us in a lively discussion about the overall RFP approach and path forward.
Later in the day, we traveled to the U.S. Department of Commerce labs where Dereck Orr, Division Chief of the PSCR Program reviewed their research and development “roadmap” for public safety communications research funding from the same legislation that created FirstNet. The funding will soon be made available to the PSCR Program. FirstNet leadership also received lab demonstrations on LTE quality of service, priority, and preemption with Band 14 infrastructure, Band 14 dual SIM devices, local control, audio quality for broadband communications, and LTE deployables.
I would like to thank the members of the FirstNet Board and leadership team for joining us in Boulder. I would also like to thank Dereck and PSCR for their coordination and support for the laboratory demonstrations.
Thanks,
-Jeff
