About FirstNet and Federal Users
Federal departments and agencies that conduct and deliver public safety services can subscribe to FirstNet as primary users. For example, agency components conducting missions such as law enforcement, homeland security, border security and disaster response operations are integral parts of the public safety community and can subscribe to FirstNet.
FirstNet provides public safety officials with streamlined and interoperable communications to execute their missions while working with other public safety officials at all levels of government. FirstNet offers priority and preemption capabilities and coverage solutions for public safety communications, allowing public safety officials to avoid network congestion that occurs during emergencies. Public safety organizations have local control of all the users registered under their FirstNet subscription, which means they are able to control the mobile device management, onboarding, off-boarding, and prioritization of individual users. Additionally, during periods of high activity, incident commanders will also have the ability to adjust groups of people and applications as needed; FirstNet supports the National Response Framework (NRF), National Incident Management System (NIMS), and the Incident Command System (ICS), which remain the standards for coordination during emergency events.
There are currently 14 Federal departments and agencies represented through FirstNet’s Agency Point of Contact (APOC) group; APOCs work closely with FirstNet and help distribute information and any requests for data collection and feedback from FirstNet to the agency components and bureaus. FirstNet continues to engage the US Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, the Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and General Services Administration and welcomes other agencies with a public safety, emergency management, or homeland security mission segment to contact the Federal Consultation Team at FederalConsultation@FirstNet.gov about participation.
FirstNet consults with Federal agencies regarding the impact of critical policies and procedures for current and future FirstNet network operations, including issues about quality of service, priority and preemption (QPP) and cybersecurity/encryption requirements, as well as acquisition and procurements. FirstNet also works to continue the dialog regarding opportunities and challenges with coverage objectives, eligible users, and quality of service, priority and preemption for public safety officials.
FirstNet is governed by a 15-member Board that includes the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General of the United States, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and 12 other members appointed by the Secretary of Commerce.
Representatives from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Department of Justice (DOJ) are full members of the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) and serve as co-chairs to FirstNet’s Federal Working Group (FWG). The FWG is convened, on an ad hoc basis, to bring together the expertise and perspective of Federal partners and provide input to the PSAC’s recommendations to the FirstNet Board.
To provide additional data or feedback, contact the FirstNet Federal Consultation Team at FederalConsultation@FirstNet.gov