Public Safety Advocate: Survey, Happy Anniversary FirstNet, Less Expensive FirstNet Devices

Survey. Thanks to all who completed our survey and those who will complete it this week. If you have not yet done so, please take a few minutes to respond this week.?

Book In Process. This Advocate provides a glimpse into the wins and struggles public safety endured in the years before the nationwide public-safety network could finally be built. There is much more to this story and when finished, the book will fill in the details in a unique way.?

FirstNet: In the Beginning. A glimpse into what it took to convince Congress, the FCC, and the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government to acquire spectrum for what would become a Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN).?

Spectrum. ?We were not unopposed in our quest for some 700-MHz LMR spectrum and the addition of the D-Block ten megahertz to make up a twenty-MHz network. Many in Congress were more interested in auction proceeds than providing D-Block spectrum for public safety. At this point, it was public safety up against the U.S. Government.?

Success-10th Anniversary. February 22, 2012, D-Block spectrum and some funding were included in the Middle-Class Tax Relief bill that passed relatively quickly and was signed into law. However, to satisfy Congress, the bill contained a “give-back clause.”?

FirstNet Devices. A discussion of how Band-14 devices were so quickly developed and available; thoughts about how to bring prices down.

Read the entire column here.?