Rivada leads joint bid for FirstNet

Seven major communications firms have joined forces to become one of the bidders for the USA’s national public safety broadband LTE communications network, FirstNet.

The joint venture, called Rivada Mercury, brings together Rivada Networks, Harris Corporation, Ericsson, Nokia, Intel Security, Fujitsu Network Communications and Black & Veatch.

The proposed network would operate in 700 MHz band spectrum licensed to FirstNet.

The company said that, if its bid succeeds, it would provide “a carrier-neutral, public-safety-first approach” that “guarantees first responders priority access during emergencies” while simultaneously creating new opportunities for the commercial wireless market.

“The Rivada Mercury team is comprised of proven technology companies — each leaders in their field with unmatched technology capabilities and experience serving the public safety community with innovative and forward-leaning solutions,” said Joe Euteneuer, CEO, Rivada Mercury, in a statement.

“Our team’s approach to FirstNet offers many benefits for America’s public safety community; namely, we will provide public safety with a purpose-built Band 14 network and immediate turnkey access to the largest non-Band 14 coverage footprint in the US.”

Rivada Mercury says that its “key differentiator” would be the use of Rivada’s pioneering Dynamic Spectrum Arbitrage (DSA) technology that enables the dynamic selling of excess critical-grade network capacity to commercial tenants without risk of interfering with first responders’ broadband access.

It says the use of DSA would give public safety the ability to share and allocate bandwidth among enterprise tenants.

“As a pioneer in dynamic spectrum arbitrage, Rivada Mercury’s innovative technology will both fund the FirstNet build-out and sustained operation and maintenance by selling excess capacity to commercial users,” said Euteneuer.

The company says its approach has benefits that go well beyond financing the first responders’ dedicated network, as providing an “open-access market enables traditional carriers to optimise their bandwidth use financially and operationally”.

Image courtesy Rivada Networks