2027 Agenda

By the time IWCE happens, we will know what action Congress has taken to address the potential reauthorization of the FirstNet Authority, because the current legal deadline for federal lawmakers to decide is in the latter part of February.
What’s less clear is what Congress will have done by IWCE—reauthorize the FirstNet Authority, delay a decision or decline reauthorization of the organization entirely.

During this session, we will explore the implications of whatever reauthorization action Congress takes. While some sort of FirstNet Authority reauthorization has been expected by Beltway pundits, federal lawmakers have indicated that they would like to make changes in the current arrangement.

If Congress declines to reauthorize the FirstNet Authority entirely—still considered an unlikely outcome—it would raise a host of questions, including the use of 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum licensed to the FirstNet Authority and the path forward for more than 30,000 agencies currently subscribed to the FirstNet system.

Regardless of what action Congress takes, our panelists will explore what impacts any changes will have on public safety from the perspective of agencies’ ongoing operations, competition/pricing, innovation adoption, timing for budget planning, and various levels of interoperability.