FirstNet Authority Focuses on Reauthorization; Board Approves Budget

Reauthorization of the FirstNet Authority is a top priority in FY 2024, CEO Joe Wassel said at the authority board’s quarterly meeting Wednesday. The authority will sunset in 2027 without congressional action, Wassel said. The authority oversees the network, which AT&T is building. The board, which met in Tacoma, Washington, and virtually, also approved a budget for the year.

“We’re pushing very hard for reauthorization,” Wassel said: “We’re working with Congress. We’re working with NTIA. We’re working with the Department of Commerce” and the states. “We’ve got a great team over on the Hill and across the country,” he said.

“We think it’s important for the nation that the authority continue its work with our public/private partner in bringing the dot.gov leadership, education, awareness and advocacy at the federal level for public safety,” Wassel said.

The FirstNet Authority sent a team last week to assist with recovery from the Maui wildfires and provide “on-the-ground support for our federal partners,” said board Chair Richard Carrizzo. AT&T has been in Maui for more than two weeks, he said. Carrizzo said FirstNet is also focused on wildfires in other areas of the U.S. this summer.

The FCC said in a report Wednesday all wireless cellsites in Maui are operational, as is the Maui Police Department public safety answering point. Cable and wireline companies reported 14,466 subscribers still out of service in the disaster area, which “may include the loss of telephone, television, and/or Internet services,” the report said.

The board unanimously approved a $451 million budget package for FY 2024. The budget allocates $95 million for operations, with another $95 million in reserves. The remaining $261 million goes to “investments in network coverage and emerging technologies.”

“We have a very serious mission -- this is a serious time in our nation,” Wassel said. FirstNet picks up 3,000 connections every day, he said: “There is momentum. There is an acceptance of the network in public safety across the nation. … We’ve got to have a network that is up, ready and resilient against all hazards, and I want to call out cybersecurity in particular.”

FirstNet currently serves more than 26,000 public safety agencies and organizations in every state and territory in the U.S., with more than 5 million connections on the network, the authority said.

“This budget will enable our organization to continue to engage with and advocate for the nation’s public safety community, making sure the network continues to evolve and meet their emerging needs,” Carrizzo said.

The authority “is on very sound financial footing and is financially well positioned as we approach the next fiscal year,” said Brian Crawford, chair of the Finance and Investment Committee.

“We are about serving public safety so they [can] serve the people in our nation,” said Sylvia Moir, chair of the Public Safety Advocacy Committee. Moir cited outreach the authority has done, including a recent tour of a calling center in the Bronx, New York. Two weeks ago, board members and AT&T officials visited the site of the Dec. 25, 2020, bombing in Nashville, which partially destroyed an AT&T central office and led to 911 outages (see 2012280048), Moir said. FirstNet is also holding a series of meeting with DOD and the services to improve FirstNet access on military bases, she said.

The authority has had 15 meetings with the states this year on the status of FirstNet, with another 22 scheduled before the end of 2023, Moir said. “We are in the field with the people,” she said.

Board member Alexandra Fernandez Navarro, a Puerto Rican regulator, said board members recently traveled to the territory. “It is indispensable” to learn “about particular emergency needs of jurisdictions that range from their logistics to their priorities to their resources to their lack of resources,” she said. Puerto Rico poses “a real language barrier that must be taken into consideration,” she said.

The board is scheduled to next meet Nov. 2 in Washington, D.C.