The First Responder Network Authority board has approved two long-sought spectrum lease agreements: one with the state of New Jersey, and one with Adams County, Colo.
This brings FirstNet’s current lease agreements to four, including the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System Authority (LA-RICS) and the state of New Mexico.
All four public safety entities are also Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grantees. New Jersey and Adams County must now submit a request to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA, which administers the BTOP grants) and request that the suspension be lifted on their funding so that the projects can resume. As part of the lease agreements, FirstNet will submit a letter in support of the request. Both LA-RICS and New Mexico have already had their BTOP funding reinstated.
The BTOP networks are seen as pilot projects whose networks will provide lessons to shape the nationwide public safety LTE network that FirstNet has been tasked with designing, building and operating.
Adams County “will be one of the first systems to have the capability to provide advanced mobile data services to a major airport complex and link adjacent public safety entities to airport public safety operations,” FirstNet noted, and added that the agency’s proximity to the Public Safety Communications Research center in nearby Boulder allows it to serve as a pilot project for interoperability testing. FirstNet’s own Technical, Engineering and Network Design headquarters will be in Boulder as well, with occupancy in a leased space expected by January.
New Jersey, meanwhile, has changed its original plan to focus on using mobile cell sites on wheels (COWs). The state plans to buy 37 COWs, allowing FirstNet to explore the role that deployable network assets will play in its overall plan. Board member Craig Farrill, head of FirstNet’s technology and planning committee, has said that deployables will be of particular value in allowing FirstNet’s network to function after natural disasters that damage existing mobile infrastructure.
Both negotiations were protracted affairs. In fact, the board was told in August that after six months of discussions, agreement could not be reached with either Adams County or New Jersey. The jurisdictions then would have had to either revise and re-submit their mobile broadband plans without LTE, or to give up the grants entirely. Ultimately, however, the negotiations were successful.
“I’m really pleased that we were able to reach agreement with these two additional public safety projects,” said Sam Ginn, chairman of the FirstNet board. “These projects will provide FirstNet with a prime opportunity to gather key information and share lessons learned with FirstNet and the public safety community.”
However, illustrating just how difficult a nationwide system will be to implement, the board has still been unable to reach agreements with some of the other BTOP grantees, including the city of Charlotte, N.C.; the state of Mississippi; and the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications Systems Authority (BayRICS). Negotiations have been extended through Feb. 24 with Harris County, Tex., which has been operating on FirstNet spectrum via an arrangement with the Federal Communications Commission and is not BTOP-funded.
During its meeting in Boulder this week, the board also agreed to establish a physical headquarters via leasing space in a General Services Administration facility in Reston, Virginia, in addition to the space in Boulder.
