Disagreements Continue Over Need for FirstNet Interoperability Rules
FirstNet opposed Verizon’s request for the FCC to address interoperability rules for the national first responder network (see 1909270054). Replies were posted Tuesday in docket 19-254 on Colorado's Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority (BRETSA) petitions for declaratory ruling or…
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rulemaking. “Verizon’s comments substantially mischaracterize and minimize the FirstNet Authority’s duties and responsibilities under” the Spectrum Act, which created FirstNet, that authority said, filed by NTIA. “Congress made the FirstNet Authority the agency expressly responsible for carrying out the provisions implementing and overseeing the NPSBN [the nationwide public safety broadband network], and those duties and responsibilities extend far beyond mere 'administrative and business-related actions.'” Relief sought by BRETSA is “unnecessary, unworkable and unwise,” said AT&T, which is building FirstNet. “Neither the Spectrum Act nor the Communications Act authorizes the relief BRETSA seeks,” AT&T said: “BRETSA and its handful of supporters fail utterly to rebut these arguments.” But T-Mobile said the FCC has responsibilities under the Spectrum Act. “As Verizon noted, FirstNet is a Commission licensee, over which the Commission enjoys discretion to impose terms and conditions,” T-Mobile commented: “There is nothing in the … Act that removes from the Commission its general jurisdiction over licensees and their conduct.” BRETSA urged FCC action. “The BRETSA Petitions are not about core-to-core interoperability, placing commercial traffic generally on the NPSBN … or requiring FirstNet to build or support multiple networks,” BRETSA said: “BRETSA’s Petitions are instead about the very practical and essential needs of the public safety community to utilize extant communications resources (i) which serve areas extending beyond the FirstNet footprint, (ii) in which investment of limited public funds have already been sunk, or (iii) which better serve the unique needs of a specific jurisdiction.” BRETSA said: “Until FirstNet achieves a nationwide footprint for the interoperable NPSBN, and public safety agency budgets permit, there will be public safety agencies which will have no choice but to rely upon extant public safety radio systems and commercial providers.”