FirstNet outage spawns new task force

The FirstNet Authority said this week that AT&T's network outage in the early morning hours of February 22 affected it for about three hours before FirstNet service was restored "by around 5:00 a.m. CST."

"The FirstNet Authority recognizes that AT&T put public safety first during the outage. Resilience is crucial in the face of adversity, and AT&T stepped up and prioritized the restoration of FirstNet," wrote Joe Wassel, executive director and CEO of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet).

Wassel is doing the only thing most government agencies can do in times of crisis: He's forming a task force, and there will be meetings. 

Task force formed to strengthen comms, processes

He writes that he has established a "FirstNet Authority After-Action Task Force comprised of public safety, technical, and emergency management experts" on his team. Wassel writes that the group will ensure that the next AT&T outage or similar service interruption is sorted and overcome in an even shorter time.

Wassel notes that the FirstNet Authority Board will meet again on March 6. "The outage will be the top order of business at this meeting, and we will discuss steps to strengthen the network and ensure FirstNet continues to be the most resilient and reliable broadband network for public safety."

Related:Counting the cost of AT&T's outage

From there, we'll find out what a task force can do. We suspect it will increase spending on processes, assurance and technology to minimize the impact of future network problems. What else can it do? FirstNet is committed, AT&T is entrenched and network outages are "the reality of our business," according to AT&T CEO John Stankey.  

On February 13, days before the AT&T outage, FirstNet announced it was "launching the next phase of FirstNet through a series of strategic investments totaling more than $8 billion over 10 years." AT&T didn't change its financial guidance when that investment was announced; the carrier does not disclose how much it profits from FirstNet.

"No company is better suited to answer the call for widespread connectivity than AT&T," Stankey wrote to employees on February 25.

Even, we assume, if that call was made over Wi-Fi.