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Get Up to Speed on FirstNet

If you’re looking to get up to speed on the planned build-out of FirstNet, a recent Q&A article from American City and County has you covered. Here are a few key takeaways:

• FirstNet will provide public safety officials a committed, dedicated, reliable network, removing communication interruptions.
• FirstNet’s timeline includes choosing a contractor for the nationwide public safety network by November 2016.  Six months after that contract is in place, deployment plans for all 50 states and 6 territories will be presented. Governors will then have 90 days to accept the FirstNet deployment plan, meaning construction could begin as early as summer 2017.
• FirstNet’s initial deployments will be providing LTE data and commercial-grade voice services to public safety subscribers. Push-to-talk services are projected to be available two years after initial deployment.

The article also covers potential costs for FirstNet services, opt-out options, if FirstNet would replace public safety land-mobile-radio (LMR) systems that are being used currently, and more. 

Read the article.

Connect Iowa, in partnership with the ISICSB, has delivered FirstNet presentations to representatives of all 99 Iowa counties and hosted workshops in the 6 regions throughout Iowa. During these workshops, a chair and vice-chair were elected to the Regional Interoperability Committee (RIC) to work with the ISICSB.

About FirstNet: The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States prompted the 9/11 Commission to recommend a dedicated public safety communications network. This network would be interoperable and nationwide to resolve the communication issues emergency responders face when tragedy strikes. The First Responder Network Authority, or FirstNet, an organization created in 2012 as part of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation, is overseeing the building of the network.

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