FirstNet and AT&T, which in April announced a partnership for the deployment of a national high-speed data and voice network for first responders, have detailed State Plans for U.S. states and territories to support the roll-out of the FirstNet network.
The companies noted that the State Plans are being delivered three months ahead of the original schedule and represent a milestone in the deployment of the FirstNet network. The State Plans are being released via an online portal, while states and territories will have up to 45 days to review the plans. States and territories will be able to exchange feedback with FirstNet prior to an official 90-day period for governors to make an ‘opt-in/opt-out’ decision on their state plans.
A decision by a state/territory to opt-in will allow FirstNet and AT&T to immediately begin delivering services to the state or territory’s public safety community, as well as enabling infrastructure investments for the network.
The partners stated that when a governor opts-in, FirstNet and AT&T will launch the network build process, thereby prompting:
1. Transfer of the financial, operational and technical risks of building, maintaining and upgrading the FirstNet network in that state/territory to AT&T for a period of 25 years.
2. The launch of key network features, including priority access to voice and data across the existing nationwide AT&T LTE network.
3. The provision of pre-emption over the AT&T LTE network, which is due to be enabled by year-end, meaning that fire, police and EMS will have dedicated access to the network when necessary.
4. The delivery of new feature-rich services at competitive rates.
- AT&T announced in April that it had been selected by the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) to build and manage the first broadband network dedicated to U.S. police, firefighters and emergency medical services (EMS) across 50 states, 5 U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.
- Under the terms of the 25-year agreement, FirstNet was to provide 20 MHz of telecoms spectrum and payments of $6.5 billion over the next five years to support the network build-out, while AT&T was to invest approximately $40 billion over the term of the contract to build, deploy, operate and maintain the network.
