[A] state panel reviewing a plan to strengthen public safety communications during the next 25 years is expected to vote on the multimillion-dollar proposal without having seen an independent reviewer’s report.
The Public Safety Broadband Commission meets Monday in Waterbury to vote on a recommendation to Gov. Phil Scott whether to opt in or out of FirstNet, a federally sponsored program being spearheaded by a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce and telecom giant AT&T.
“What can Vermont’s first responders expect regarding quality and scope of coverage from the FirstNet/AT&T plan?” wrote Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., in a letter to FirstNet last week. “Will you provide Vermont’s first responders with maps showing detailed signal levels?”
Scott is slated to decide whether the state will opt in or out by year’s end.
“I want to make sure the governor has the information he needs to make the decision,” Welch said in an interview Friday
Some of those watching the process have expressed doubt about the quality of what AT&T is proposing. If a plane crash occurred deep in the mountains and outside of cellphone coverage territory, AT&T has said it would provide “deployables” — essentially a truck with a temporary cell tower to provide service to an area that usually lacks it.
But state officials revealed earlier this year that AT&T wanted up to 14 hours to get a deployable to the scene of a catastrophe, which broadband commission Chairman Terry LaValley called way too slow. He said the state had had some success negotiating a shorter response time but would not say how much it had been reduced as a result of the talks.
At a legislative hearing in October, it was revealed that AT&T would be allowed to use signal speeds significantly lower than what the Federal Communications Commission ruled in 2015 met the definition of broadband. It is those sorts of details some in Vermont have been clamoring for — and in many instances, not getting.
States have not been allowed to see the contract between FirstNet and AT&T, which some critics say is crucial to a full understanding of what is on offer under the program. Vermont officials ordered an “independent expert review” of whether it would be wiser to join the federal-AT&T program or move forward independently with a Vermont-designed program.
But Ken Jones, an official with the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development who also serves on the broadband commission, said members were not being allowed to see the independent expert’s report, but instead would be given a presentation on it before the vote Monday.
Jones said the commission is in a tough spot, because for all the lack of sufficient information about the AT&T-FirstNet plan, it also lacks sufficient information about what opting out would mean.
State Auditor Doug Hoffer, in an interview Friday, expressed strong misgivings about the fact that commission members would not be allowed to see the independent expert’s report before voting on the FirstNet plan.
“To the extent the commission is going to be meeting and acting on Monday, they should have access to all the relevant information,” Hoffer said.
One thing that came to light last month: VTDigger reported on a FirstNet document saying that if Vermont opted out, tried to go it alone and built a public safety communications system that was deemed not up to federal standards, it could face up to $173 million in penalties.
As for the independent expert report, Stephen Whitaker, a Vermont citizen-advocate who has steeped himself for decades in telecommunications issues, said he had been briefed on the report’s contents and called them “damning.”
Once the commission makes its recommendation, the governor has until Dec. 28 to make a final decision on whether Vermont should opt in or out with the FirstNet program.
At stake, say some of those watching the state broadband commission’s deliberations, are an expected tens of millions of dollars in spending on network improvements and an opportunity to use the FirstNet project to strengthen the state’s often spotty cellphone and broadband coverage.
