By Jessica Zufolo, Federal Grants Strategy Director
Last weekend I had the honor of participating on a federal agency panel at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Winter Committee meetings in Washington, D.C. The winter meetings attract on average more than 2,500 participants involved in utility and broadband infrastructure investment, regulation, policy development, resiliency and security.
I provided an update on the FirstNet program roadmap during the panel, which is a regular part of the program agenda of the NARUC Telecommunications Staff Subcommittee. Despite the fact that it’s held on Sunday mornings during each NARUC conference, it is widely attended by state public utility commissioners and their staffs as well as industry, federal officials and consumer stakeholders. Attending this event was particularly special for me since I worked for NARUC many years ago as their legislative director.
NARUC’s membership is comprised of state public utility commissioners and their staffs from all 56 states and territories, each of whom are state government officials either appointed by their governor or elected statewide. Most commissioners and their staffs work closely with their state point of contact (SPOC) for FirstNet or have some influence over how the network will be conceived in their respective state. Given the close nexus between statewide telecommunications network decisions, supervised by state public service commissions and the state planning process, NARUC is a natural partner association for FirstNet in collaborating with state and local infrastructure decision makers.
I was pleased to share this mornings’ panel with my colleague John Morris, Associate Administrator for Policy Analysis and Development at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) who also provided an update to the subcommittee on all broadband and internet policy initiatives led by his office and the agency. Other federal officials who presented during this morning’s session were several senior staffers from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), representing the Wireline, Wireless, Consumer and Government Affairs, as well as David Furth, who is the Deputy Bureau Chief at the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.
On behalf of FirstNet, I would like to say thanks to NARUC for the opportunity to provide an update on the nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN). Given the strong interest in FirstNet among state commissioners and staff, FirstNet will likely participate in future conferences to provide updates on the progress made on consultation and the request for proposal (RFP).
-Jessica
