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FirstNet January 2015 Quarterly SPOC Webinar

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January 20, 2015
On January 8, FirstNet held its quarterly webinar with the state single points of contact (SPOC), providing organizational and project updates to approximately 90 state and territory team members, covering nearly 40 states and territories.
On January 8, FirstNet held its quarterly webinar with the state single points of contact (SPOC), providing organizational and project updates to approximately 90 state and territory team members, covering nearly 40 states and territories.

By Amanda Hilliard, FirstNet Outreach Director

On January 8, FirstNet held its quarterly webinar with the state single points of contact (SPOC), providing organizational and project updates to approximately 90 state and territory team members, covering nearly 40 states and territories. Kristi Wilde kicked off the webinar by reviewing the agenda and discussing key next steps in the consultation process for the states and territories. Stuart Kupinsky, Chief Counsel and Acting Chief of Staff, followed Kristi’s introduction by providing an organizational update and reiterating FirstNet’s focus in the areas of consultation, outreach, and the development of a comprehensive network Request for Proposal (RFP).

Next, Michael Landry presented an update on the Request for Information (RFI), which was released in September 2014, including the major themes and findings from the 122 responses and how they are informing the development of a draft Request for Proposal. Then, Eli Veendendaal, Attorney Advisor, and Stuart summarized the key findings from the 63 responses to the Public Notice – focusing on the proposed definitions of public safety entity and rural – and discussed steps leading to a potential second Public Notice.

The webinar also included discussion about FirstNet’s planned process to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Amanda Pereira, FirstNet NEPA Coordinator, addressed FirstNet’s goals and actions related to NEPA and other federal laws that govern the environmental impacts of deploying a nationwide broadband network. Chris Eck, who is FirstNet’s Federal Preservation Officer, reviewed FirstNet’s plans for to assess compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).
Amanda and Chris reiterated that FirstNet’s environmental team will continue to coordinate with the FirstNet user advocacy team to provide the SPOCs with frequent updates on these and related issues going forward.

Our final agenda topic was an update from Jeff Bratcher, our Deputy Chief Technical Officer. Jeff shared information about staffing and key focus areas including the comprehensive RFP, standards and Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) activities, the Early Builder projects, support for consultation, and operations and research.

In closing, we reviewed the status of the state and territorial consultation meetings and checklists. FirstNet had completed 10 consultation meetings and received 44 checklists at the time of the SPOC webinar.

We have posted the slides from the SPOC webinar at http://www.firstnet.gov/sites/default/files/SPOC%20Quarterly%20Webinar%2... Additional information about our consultation and outreach efforts is located on the Resources page of the FirstNet website.

Thanks,

Amanda

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