Several members of the FirstNet team attended the 2015 International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) last month in Las Vegas, where they were joined by many FirstNet state single points of contact (SPOCs) and members of their teams. The conference was a great opportunity for FirstNet to highlight progress and get feedback from attendees. In total, there were more than seven-thousand representatives from the public safety community and private sector in attendance at IWCE. The conference featured several FirstNet panel discussions and a keynote presentation, including:

• Ed Parkinson, FirstNet Director of Government Affairs, participated in the “FirstNet: Hot Legal and Regulatory Issues” panel with Ryan Burchnell, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Marsha McBride, who is Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Public Safety Communications, at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. View Ed’s presentation here: Legal and Regulatory Issues

 

• TJ Kennedy, FirstNet’s Acting Executive Director, provided keynote remarks at the conference, discussing progress over the past year to implement the Strategic Program Roadmap, including the state and territory consultation meetings currently being held across the country. Prior to the keynote, FirstNet showed a video that highlighted the importance of consultation and outreach in the states and territories. You may also watch that video below.

 

• Rich Reed, FirstNet Director of State Plans, participated on a “The State of the States: FirstNet and Public Safety Broadband” panel along with New Mexico Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO) Jacqueline Miller, Texas SPOC Todd Early, and Ohio SPOC Darryl Anderson. View Rich's presentation here: The State of the States: FirstNet and Public Safety Broadband

 

• Brian Kassa, FirstNet Director of Technology Planning and Development, discussed key cybersecurity considerations for the nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) on a panel with Nelson Hastings, who is an Electronics Engineer with the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) program. Brian also participated in a separate panel called "FirstNet LTE Migration - Building for the future with Co-Existing Networks.” View Brian's presentation here: Migrating to FirstNet

 

• FirstNet Board Vice Chair Jeff Johnson and TJ Kennedy participated in a “Breaking News Session” that provided updates on key FirstNet developments and allowed for participants to ask questions. A short video of Chairman Johnson’s comments from the session is available below.

 

• Jeff Bratcher, FirstNet Acting CTO, was on an “Early Builders of FirstNet-Ready LTE Network” panel, which was moderated by Bill Schrier, Washinton SPOC, and included Texas SPOC Todd Early; NJ SPOC Fred Scalera; and New Mexico Deputy CIO Jacqueline Miller. The panel also featured Pat Mallon, Executive Director of LA-RICS, and Walt Leslie, Assistant Director of Technology, Adams County Communications, Inc., ADCOM911. View Jeff's presentation here: Early Builders of FirstNet-Ready LTE Network

 

• FirstNet Board member Kevin McGinnis was on a “FirstNet and NG9-1-1: The Big Picture View” panel, which also featured Walter Magnussen, Director for Telecommunications, Texas A&M University. View Kevin's presentation here: FirstNet and NG9-1-1: The Big Picture View

 

• Brian Hobson, FirstNet’s State Plans Technical Lead, participated on a panel session about Public/Private Partnerships.

 

FirstNet was also pleased to be joined by several members from the PSCR program. Tracy McElvaney, who is an Electronics Engineer at PSCR, was on a panel with several state and local technical experts called “Priority and Pre-emption: Local Control of FirstNet. PSCR Program Manager Dereck Orr provided an update on PSCR activities during his keynote presentation.