Tammy Parker

The surprise announcement that Bill D'Agostino, the First Responders Network Authority's general manager, has resigned, could provide a fresh start for the authority, which is still struggling to satisfy critics in the public-safety community.

D'Agostino resigned "for personal and family reasons," according to FirstNet. His hiring was announced on April 23, 2013. FirstNet has launched the search for a new GM. The authority, which is charged with building the 700 MHz LTE-based nationwide public-safety broadband network, has leased office space in Reston (VA), for its corporate headquarters, and the new GM, once he or she is chosen, will be located there.

D'Agostino generated praise for his performance as GM. But his past positions with Verizon Wireless and other mobile operators raised concerns among some in the public-safety community who felt FirstNet was already too closely tied to cellular carriers.

It has long been observed that politics makes strange bedfellows, and a recent Federal Communications Commission filing shows that trend continues.

In this case, Google, AT&T and Verizon partnered to express their views to the FCC regarding commercial operations in the 3.5 GHz band, which is envisioned for use in small cell deployments.

According to the ex parte filing, submitted on Google letterhead, on March 13, representatives of the three companies met with members of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Office of Engineering and Technology and Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau. At issue was the FCC's proposal to open the 3550-3650 MHz band for sharing between government and commercial users.

Rival telecommunications companies AT&T and Verizon, as well as Internet giant Google, whose partnership with telcos is perhaps best characterized as one of coopetition, joined to support the three-tiered sharing framework proposed by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) for the 3.5 GHz band.

The TDD spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band that Sprint acquired from Clearwire is "a powerful resource for Sprint to catch up to its competitors" and can enable the United States' third-largest mobile operator "to provide super high speed data connections," according to a report from Strategy Analytics.

The report, written by Guang Yang, Strategy Analytics' senior analyst for wireless networks and platforms, further notes that Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum is key to enabling the operator to become the "king of data speed." Sprint has said it owns around 120 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum in 90 percent of the top 100 US markets. By deploying LTE, operators are moving to an IP architecture that makes it easier to hack because it's a familiar territory for hackers.

However, the research firm's report may not have been issued at the most opportune time for Sprint. The Federal Communications Commission has been reviewing the spectrum screen it uses when assessing industry mergers and acquisitions and whether spectrum caps are needed in the upcoming 600 MHz auctions in order to equalize spectrum holdings among US mobile operators.

Sprint has contended that its vast holdings of 2.5 GHz BRS and EBS spectrum should be not be compared directly to lower band spectrum held by the nation's two largest operators, AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless. For example, in February, Sprint proposed the FCC adopt a "weighted wireless broadband spectrum screen" that would accord perceived competitive advantages to spectrum under 1 GHz.