SACRAMENTO, Calif. December 29, 2017 – Cal OES Director Mark Ghilarducci announced yesterday that California Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. has approved California to opt-in to the nationwide public-safety broadband network deployment plan offered by the First Responders Network Authority (FirstNet) to deliver a wireless broadband network to California’s public safety communities.

In an accompanying letter, Director Ghilarducci explains, “While significant progress was made, more work is needed for the FirstNet State Plan to ultimately be a successful initiative that provides a durable public safety communications network.”

Under the law that established FirstNet, governors in all 56 states and territories have the choice to “opt-in” by accepting the FirstNet deployment plan and allowing AT&T to build the LTE radio access network (RAN) within the state’s borders or to “opt-out”, which would require the state to be responsible for building and maintaining the RAN for the next 25 years.

Click link here to download Governor Brown’s letter and Director Ghilarducci’s accompanying letter dated December 28, 2017.