Opinions have been circulating about whether 700 MHz waiver recipients should continue their ongoing broadband projects or hold off until the nationwide network design is in place. The worry is that agencies will spend scarce funding and resources on infrastructure that is not interoperable with the FirstNet network, and will therefore go to waste.
“Basically, you can do backhaul, towers, site preparation, buildings and things of that nature,” Public Safety Spectrum Trust Chairman Harlin McEwen said. “They just don’t want anybody buying any more cores or [base stations for LTE]. If haven’t already bought them, they don’t want you to, and, if you haven’t already installed them, they don’t want you to install them.”
The NTIA recently encouraged waiver recipients to halt their projects, but this official mandate against purchasing any more equipment for the time being is an attempt to help those who have an August deadline for partial completion of their projects to save their funding, which could be in jeopardy if projects are halted.
Their motivation is twofold, however, in that this suspension will allow FirstNet some time to create a business model that is attractive to Public Safety entities, since each state will have the option to opt in or out of the nationwide network.
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