With an initial $7 billion and a block of radio spectrum in hand, FirstNet—charged with creating a nationwide public safety network—has to decide how to fully fund, build and operate the network.
The First Responder Network Authority—FirstNet—the independent authority overseeing development of a nationwide broadband network for first responders, expects to release this month a draft Request for Proposals for the creation of the public safety network. But the authority still faces some difficult decisions about how it will fund the build-out and operation of the network and about its relationship with commercial carriers.
The goal of the program, authorized in the 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, is to deploy an interoperable, dedicated network providing voice and data communications for the nation’s first responders. This would address the problem of inadequate, fragmented communications that have plagued police, fire departments and other emergency agencies for years.
Meeting the needs of more than 60,000 federal, state, local and tribal public safety agencies will require one of the largest and most complex IT projects in the nation’s history, and how to build it an pay for it remains to be worked out.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on FirstNet’s progress March 11. Whether or not the new first responder network partners with commercial carriers could dramatically affect cost of the project, estimated at from $12 billion to $47 billion over the first 10 years, according to the Government Accountability Office. But although sharing of resources could save billions of dollars, it also would require some mechanism for ensuring emergency personnel have access to the bandwidth they need during emergencies.
The infrastructure will include a core network, possibly with regional and national datacenters, with backhaul from Radio Access Networks (RAN) that will provide access for end-user devices, mobile and fixed. It will use the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard for advanced cellular communications, a standard already embraced by commercial carriers as 4G, or fourth generation, wireless service. LTE operates in a range of frequencies, including the 700 MHz band in which the Federal Communications Commission has set aside a block of spectrum for the public safety network. It is built on TCP/IP, offering the ability to support a variety of devices using multiple services including voice, video and data. Current implementations of LTE provide peak downlink rates of about 300 Megabits per second and 75 Megabits per second for uplinks. It incorporates quality-of-service provisions to minimize latency, enabling effective handoffs for fast-moving mobile devices.
The authorizing legislation granted FirstNet $7 billion from spectrum auction proceeds, but it must be self-sustaining after that. Money is likely to come from a combination of user fees and partnership deals with commercial carriers, which would have secondary access to the network for non-public safety services.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2011 that the cost of a network with 45,000 access sites covering 95 percent of the U.S population would be $12 billion in the first 10 years, if operated in partnership with commercial carriers. FCC in 2010 estimated a network with 44,800 sites covering 99 percent of the population would cost from $12 to $16 billion with a partnership, and $34 to $47 billion without one. This is a strong argument for partnering with commercial carriers, who could also help cut costs with the sharing of physical infrastructure such as cellular towers.
State and regional networks could provide their own RANs to tie into the network, or have FirstNet provide them.
Whatever the design, there likely will be user fees for first responders on the network. FirstNet will have to make the fees high enough to cover the costs of the network, but not so high that it will discourage users, leaving the network underused and underfunded. It also will have to balance its coverage plans. Providing coverage for the bulk of the nation’s population in high-concentration areas will be economically easy. But coverage for the remaining 20 percent will become increasingly costly as population density decreases. It is unlikely that full 100 percent coverage will be practical.
The goal of the FirstNet program is laudable, and the nation’s safety would benefit from improved communications within and among departments and jurisdictions. Whether a single, interoperable nationwide network is the best way to provide the needed interoperability and coverage remains to be seen, but we will never know if it is not tried.