Hard to imagine the folks at Verizon Wireless, who pride themselves on the the most robust and comprehensive LTE network on the planet, aren’t actively working every state in the country to get them to ‘opt-out’ of FirstNet. I’m sure you’re not going to get any public admission on this, but we’ll know by end of 2017 whether FirstNet has the substantial buy in that AT&T expects.
Urgent Communication’s Donny Jackson (about as authoritative a source there is in this space) details the machinations around this in an article published last week. What is still missing from each state plan is what it would have to pay FirstNet in an “opt-out” scenario—an option that calls for the state to be responsible for building the LTE radio access network instead of FirstNet. You’d think that would be an integral part of the decision but it appears there’s additional dialogue between FirstNet, the FCC and the NTIA before anyone’s willing to nail this down. Stay tuned.