The nation’s public safety communications is at a crossroads

The House of Representatives this month approved legislation that would extend the legal mandate of the FirstNet Authority through 2037. Such a long-term authorization would come with both “a positive and a negative impact,” according to Paul Rosenzweig, a lawyer who served in the Department of Homeland Security’s policy directorate about two decades ago, when the idea of a fully interoperable public safety communications network was still being formed. The advantage, he said, would be a “better planning certitude” and the ability to stick to long-term policy plans. The downside: “We don’t know what’s next. We don’t have a real sense, for example, of how deployed artificial intelligence might impact communications technologies.” Rosenzweig thinks FirstNet is “great,” but like others, has noticed that sometimes — like during a widespread outage on Feb. 22, 2024 — it isn’t living up to the industry’s performance expectations.

This week’s top stories: 

The number of state CISOs who described themselves as “extremely” or “very” confident in their ability to secure the government’s data has plummeted, from 48% in 2022, down to 22% this year. This and other findings were published on Monday in a report detailing a recent survey of state chief information security officers, conducted by the National Association of State CIOs.

Alabama has promoted Aaron Wright, the state’s director of application development, as its first chief artificial intelligence officer. Wright’s appointment comes two years after Gov. Kay Ivey signed in an executive order creating a generative AI task force.

More than 80 groups representing schools and libraries last week called on the Federal Communications Commission to reject the proposed creation of an online bidding portal for its E-Rate broadband subsidy program. The groups argued a new requirement to use the portal would deter schools, libraries and ISPs from participating in E-Rate.

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