the there are very important narratives but they leave out valor and they do not fully take in everything women have been doing on the battlefield this past 13 years of war. are there any other questions? thank you also much for being here. [applause] [applause] >> booktv recently visited capitol hill to ask members of congress what they are reading this summer.

>> i am a lover of biography so i found two one is called "rebel yell" about stonewall jackson. it is a good one and it invites you into the person either has become larger than life a lot of times and how he became this amazing symbols. the other is the crucible with grant and lee that just came out. we are excited about reading those. we are looking forward to a good summer breeding. >> what about the civil war? are you a civil war buff? >> the civil war i've enjoyed from the history for our country but also the figures and it goes to show a lot of the interaction were these men and many times women but these men interacted

and went on to be separated for various reasons and they all come back. it's an interesting time to look at it. >> booktv want to know what you are reading this summer. tweet us ranch with tv or posted on our facebook page at facebook.com/booktv. >> i served in northern ireland and i chaired three separate sets of discussions over period of five years. when i returned to the states i wrote a book about my experience. i think that's the last time i was here when that book was published and in that book tour around the country i received a very large number of invitations from irish americans understandably but i learned in that process that in the united states there are more irish-american organizations than there are irish-americans. [laughter]

and i was deluge with these requests. i couldn't do them all but i did several and as i traveled around the country attending these events they developed among them and in formal competition as to who could give the longest most extravagant sometimes rather fantastic introduction. the proper reaction of course would have been to show some humility to urge them to keep it short don't be repetitious. i had an improper reaction. i loved it. i encourage them. i scolded them when they left something out. one guy took 35 minutes reading a long litany of everything i had done in my life which included several things which i had not been previously aware of. [laughter] and when he finished i criticized him for leaving out the fact that in my junior year

in high school i won the science award. well by the time i got to the very last stop on his tour it was the irish-american society of stanford connecticut. i was very impressed with myself. i had was so swollen i could barely fit in the front door. when i walked in the first person i'm countered was an elderly woman who rushed up to me very excited and nervous and vigorously shook my hand, and then she praised on me saying what a great maam i was and how she didn't live anywhere near stanford. she drove three and a half hours just to come there to shake a hand and tell me how much she admired me and asked me if i would sign her poster. she handed me a cardboard with a photograph on it and i pan and i looked at her and i said i'll be very happy to sign your poster but before i do i think there something i should tell you. she said what is it? i said i'm not henry kissinger. [laughter]

it was a photograph of henry kissinger. she said you are not? she said who are you anyway? so when i told her she was obviously disappointed in and she said well that's just terrible. she said i drove three and a half hours to meet egg great man like henry kissinger and all i got is a nobody like you. i said i'm sorry and i wish there was something i could do to make you feel better. there was a brief pause and she said well there is. i said what is it? she leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner and i leaned forward and therefore has were touching. she said nobody will ever know the difference. [laughter] she said would you mind signing henry kissinger's name to my poster? [laughter] so i did and it's hanging today in eastern connecticut and a

daily reminder to me not to take these introductions to seriously. now most of you have heard henry kissinger speak so here's the best part of the story. about a year ago he and i appeared jointly at a conference in manhattan and there was a moderator and two chairs and he asked us questions about world affairs and i thought it would a good time to tell the story and i did. ..

politics and bros is on the next list. washington, d.c. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org.

>> host: is there an issue with first responders that they need their own networks? >> guest: first responders have do issues that require them to have their own network. in big emergency situation they can get clogged. public safety relied on land mobile and they served a focus but they are on voice technology. many of us are leverage what broadband can do. if you think about the unique things that can be done to enhance safety and security if you could leverage broadband day in and day out.

>> host: what is the status of firstnet? >> guest: we have created the initial draft rp and released that. >> host: request for proposal? >> guest: yes, we are getting our acquisition process and implementing it with all of the states across the country. those are requirements of what we have to do to stand up the nexttwork network. the network is deployed in the future. >> host: what is your biggest obstacle you face right now? >> guest: working through the acquisition process. they are timely but you have to work through them and they feed each other. consultation feeds into acquisition. and there are number of rules and regulations that need to be filled that take time.

so it is as quickly as possible with public safety. and we are making sure we have having the input from all of the public safety agencies around the country. another challenge for us is making sure we get the right people. this is a technical project. at the same point it is near and dear to us at public safety. it is trying to find the key resources that come and help us. >> host: joining the conversation is a frequent communicator guest the executive senior editor of senior communication. >> a lot of people i talk to with unsure of firstnet and questioning if this will be built and how much use it will get. what do you say? >> guest: i think it will be

built and have lots of use. i found if you have bills that work and put them in the hands of police officers and firefighters and paramedics they will utilize them. they utilize smart devices and all of the tools they can get their hands on now and giving them tools to make their job more effective they will utilize them fully in the future. >> is there anything that could keep this from getting completed at this point? >> guest: i think there are road blocks that could pop up. we have been executing against the road map working through 13 different request for information. working with industry to gather information. we released statements to get feedback from public safety as well as from the state and local community and the vendor community and released a draft request for proposal. they are key steps of getting

through the acquisition process while conducting consultation and they are driving toward a public safety network that will provide the kinds of technology that public safety needs to operate affectively. >> it was suggested that firstnet could cost $47 billion to build. that is a big number. did you believe those estimates are too high? what kind of cost is the network? >> guest: they talked about $12-$47 billion which is a range and i think it is realistic whether it is high or low. we have to work through the competitive bidding process to get the most value we can for the network. we are leveraging through new sources of funding to fund the network and one is the extra capacity on the network and the value of the spectrum to do that. part of that is to see what competition drives the best

value. >> and one most cost question. are you doing internal estimates yet? do you have any expectations in terms of how much this is going to cost? you are a couple years down the road. >> guest: we have done a lot of modeling and work on the acquisition and you work on internal estimates. because of where we are we would like to wait until the actually responses to come in to share that data but we have a great feeling of what it will cost and i think the range out there is appropriate. >> host: t.j. kennedy, you talked about three different funding sources for firstnet. what are they? how much from each? >> guest: one was initial spectrum sales that already started to occur and that would generate $7 billion going into the construction fund for the

firstnet deployment. that funding has come in and it is a terrific set of progress for firstnet because we can count on that going forward. the second part is leveraging the capacity of the seven mega hertz spectrum. a a way to leverage the excess capacity so there when is unused capacity it can be leveraged to bring in funding that will maintain and operate the network as well as build it out. the third fee is user fees. the public safety users and the core user fees coming from the network is the third major element that will help sustain the network over time. >> host: so the user fees come

from the 60,000 emergency responders teams? >> guest: correct. >> host: what is the role of private providers in building and operating firstnet such as verizon? >> guest: there are a number of private providers that could offer on this particular opportunity. and i think the carriers are one of them. i think there are others as well. when we talk about the extra capacity piece we would look for folks that have an interest in leveraging the extra capacity and deploying the network in part of that. this is watt the acquisition is being build upon on and looking good competition but putting infrastructure where it makes sense helping with the speed. the act knows and talks about deploying the network in a way that gets it out and available as soon as practical. if you look at the 50 states and

the territoryies and district of columbia there is a lot of areas to cover. there are ways we could leverage the world telecommunication infrastructure and the government infrastructure to speed the development where it is economically desirable. >> you talked about extra capacity on the system. do you have any idea how much capacity you will be able to make to carriers? the spectrum you are not using they will then be able to use as part of their network. >> guest: 20 mega hertz is a significant amount of spectrum. it isn't just about building capacity but during big emergency sichtuationsituations like a natural disaster, or terror event or train derailment the need gets large for a period of time. we are building for peek

capacity for an emergency and build that. so the only way that works is if you can lease out the excess capacity when you are not using it. as you know in washington, d.c. we have events coming to the mall. we have scheduled events that regularly occur. the inauguration is a big example. making sure the police fire and emergency medical services can operate during that as well. >> are those also the time when the carriers need capacity? for example to serve huge crowds on the mall? >> reporter: >> guest: they have some they utilize and bring additional during the incidents. we want to make sure the dedicated public safety spectrum is there for public safety and if the big events happen there is enough capacity to surge.

that is why it is important. >> i was going to ask you is it clear what size channel you will offer? 10 mega hertz capacity? or offer the carriers more? >> guest: it isn't about splicing up the spectrum. it is about building and deploying the network that will have a significant amount of capacity for the big needs. one of the things to look at is what the carriers to today. they have a hundred million customers in some situations. for public safety we estimated and put out in the draft rp documents there is 4-14 million public safety providers across the country. it depends on which explanation you use. the core ems personal is the big three. when you look at the additional first responders out there that number could grow. but it is small when you look at the population of the united states and the number of subscribers many of the carriers have. tay are able to operate with a

lot of customers in a similar spectrum and we will have a lot of capacity on the network. i think we need to have the capacity available for the surge needs that happen even though it will not necessarily be every day. >> host: t.j. kennedy to help us understand how firstnet would operate, let's take the recent train derailment in philadelphia. what would be the role of firstnet in a disaster like that? >> guest: the role of firstnet would be to provide a data and broadband network for first responders. police officers firefighters, emergency medical technicians responding to the incident and on the scene when the firstnet is up and running would have the ability to have video of things from the scene being sent to incoming responders and have pictures from the scene and important data on where everybody is on that particular scene. today not everybody would have the ability to see where the

other ambulances are staged that might be coming in to pick up patients and you would leverage it for triaug. there are fit bits and wearable technology in the fitness world and what if that could be placed on a patient and get vital signs and not necessarily with the devices today but think of the innovation that would that could happen. you would know where your patients are, track their vital signs and send them to hospital and track them there to make sure they are handed off and there is con tenuity of care. there is the ability you could have for instance a critical patient and have a two-way interface to the emergency room where today that is difficult. just on the emergency medical services side alone there are interesting possibilities that can happen. from law enforcement it can help

from the investigation side of the house give the ability to send back to second and third responders coming to the scene real time data allow commanders in emergency operations centers to see what is going on in the scene with more detail from a voice communication system. those are the start of the possibilities. but most importantly it is situational awareness. data that is being shared in addition to voice communication. >> host: would all of the first responders arriving on the scene log on to a certain spot to get all of this information? >> guest: it is like a cellular system you have today. we all operate in cellular communities with the ability you can be in different

jurisdictions. in the area of philadelphia there are a number of jurisditionjuris jurisdictions. the one nice thing about firstnet is we will operate the same spectrum internationally standards with the third generation partnership project and the cellular standard drives everyone is operating the same technology. long term revolution is the current faster and more advanced level of cellular communication and having the ability to send that rich experience you would get it broadband that is different than just having voice. to be able to send the video is something that is done right away. if someone from new jersey were to respond to pennsylvania between the border on two states the same tools spectrum and

capabilities would exist across state lines which may not be the case today. >> you said there are 14 million first responders who might be able to use the network. isn't there a problem with local governments having budget cuts and how will they afford the new technology and how much will they invest in plugging into this network? is that a big issue for firstnet? >> guest: we are looking at offerings that are comparison in price and that is important for many of these departments. and additional features like encryption and not every department has access to that. many departments in the united states are small. small as one or two police officers in the town. many at the 20-25 person range. having the ability to have a secure network that provides

communication when and where they need that and operate with other departments seemamlessly is a huge benefit at a commercial cost and will be affordable. a lot of them today have budgets that are tight but we can work it. >> you mean comp comparable to what i pay now? >> guest: that is the ballpark we are looking at. >> carriers are all looking for spectrum. but can you explain where you are at with being able to negotiate deals with the wireless carriers who might also want to plug into this network? >> guest: we are in the giraffe response for proposal process. we have put out a 90-day

deadline that closes on july 27th. we expect rather it is a carrier or other company will respond to ideas and thoughts on if we hit the right approach and we are driving toward a final rp by the end of this calendar year; december 31st. >> host: where does the money go? what is the bulk of the expenses? >> guest: initially to capital expenses to deploy the network with antennas on existing infrastructure. overtime the operating expenses are the largest and that goes to retaining the network, upgrading and capitalizing the network and the ongoing cost of having the communication across the country. they are pretty large in the

operating expensesense. hundred percent of the revenue coming in above the existing cost has to be plowed back in the network. anything above and beyond what we expect would be purely put into additional coverage and capacity and trying to give applications and a rich system to public safety to serve their needs. >> host: have you found support or opposition in congress for firstnet? >> guest: i think we found support in congress. on both sides of the aisle there has been support for public safety and creating a network that is nationwide. creating a network that operates across all states. and having a network that serves the modern needs of public safety with video, voice and data. there is support to make it happen and support knowing this is a large complex project that is needed by public safety today.

>> host: is there a government entity out there with a model you are admiring or using parts of? >> guest: that is a good question. in the united states there are state-wide land line mobile systems. i don't think there is a perfect analogous system similar to what firstnet is today. this is a first in the united states. there are a number of countries about six looking at building similar systems around the world. the united kingdom is furtherirth farth furtheralongfurtherirth along. er we -- and there are number of other countries headed that down that. in june we have the public safety research conference we are holding in san diego and six

other countries are coming to share experiences or desire to follow and model after what the united states is doing. the most likely example is canada who set aside the similar spectrum we have so they can be synergistic with the what the u.s. is doing going forward. >> one of the big questions i know when firstnet was before congress has been the world cob coverage. carriers spend $30 million a year for cap-x and many don't reach the smallest parts of the country. how much will it cost to build a network that reaches the most remote areas of the country? >> we have competing pressure. we are definitely meeting our mandate to do world build out milestones and they are in each phrase of the deployment. we have to balance that to be a

sutainsu sustainable and we will work with the deployment of the network. there are things that will be cost effective but the real goal is reaching rural areas that are underserved. there >> there will be some places you will not be able to reach with the network? >> guest: there are. one of the ing things we are doing is getting data from states on their emergency calls for service have been. in my former days as a first responder i responded to cannons where there was no public safety by mobile radio coverage and probably still isn't today. most of thes didn't have more than one rescue a year. we would love to have coverage where we can but there are

limited places. i went into cannons in utah that were beautiful for hiking but not an easy place to cover with wireless. we have the same laws of physics to deal with. >> host: back to your experience as a firefighter paramedic state trooper in utah did you run into situations where you could not communicate with first responders? >> guest: absolutely. i spent a lot of time in the mountains and there was a large portion that had very little public safety coverage. we will go up cannons 10-20 miles and there was no coverage and you would need backup and couldn't talk to anybody. when i worked for lifeflight in

salt laky city we flew out and landed in remote areas where communication by networks was difficult and radio networks didn't get out everywhere we needed to. there is a need in western parts of the states that are rural and need additional coverage and looking at innovative ways to solve that problem as we go forward. we are seeing an industry with other ways people are looking at covering the more remotes part of the world and there is great innovation happening that will continue to help us. >> host: does wi-fi have a role in firstnet? >> guest: there are police cars with dashcam video and with that they have wi-fi to download the

information. that is a cost effective way to take a large amount of video and move to a permanent storage. i think they are great uses for wi-fi. >> host: is firstnet an independent government agency? >> guest: we are an independent authority that is inside the department of commerce and inside of mtia. but we are an independent authority. >> one of the comments you hear from a lot of people is because the fact you are a government agency it is going to be difficult to negotiate contracts with wireless intoastdustryindustry. how big of a an impediment are the federal rules you have to operate with? >> guest: the rules are difficult. i think they are difficult because a lot of federal precurements are buying a number of different pieces of hardware or software or services for that

matter. we are looking for revenue to come in to cover leasing agreements in addition to buying equipment and services. that is pretty unique when you look at it. i think this creates a new business case. it will be a great study, i think in public-private partnerships in the perspective of how to make it work. i think we could set a good example of finding cost affective ways. that levage existing infrastructure and public safety and funding for the biggest needs and biggest emergency situations they might respond to while being cost effective. >> are you going to sit down with verizon or at&t and cut deals? i mean that is a lot of what happens in this space. isn't that hard for a government agency to do? >> guest: i think it is hard for a government agency to do.

we hope a lot of competition comes in on the request for proposal and many interns want to respond to that. there are rules on how you can have to discussions and we are following the rules to work through that. >> host: you have done some pilot projects around the country. one was in los angeles and there seems to be an issue with la. they dropped out of the pilot project according to some reports. is that accurate? >> guest: it was running through issues but that is not accurate. it is back up and running in progress and continuing to proceed. all of the early five building projects which happen before firstnet was created. they are pre-firstnet projects that will benefit us with the lessons learned. the five projects are different. when we look at the state of new mexico and new jersey and harris county texas and adams county

colorado and los angeles everyone is looking at different needs. new mexico is learning from a border and the kind of public safety issues and spectrum issues around the border. they are providing different lessons to us. in los angeles we received a number of lessons from that project with the biggest being the issues in deploying on public safety infrastructure and looking how to leverage that verses commercial or other infrastructure infrastructure. we are learning they take time with building and permitting with local community issues arising. it is reinforcing the infrastructure that can be able available and not just one available. they are valuable because we will deploy across all 50 states and having the lessons at an

early stage is huge. all five are scheduled at different sizes and numbers of sites to be done by september of this year. i think it is going to be great to see the operation al uses. many are in the build out stage now. i am looking forward to seeing the real live uses of the network. the art of the possible and innovation that will happen in public safety when people have access to broadband in their every day role as a police officer firefighter or paramedic will be tremendous and showing that to other first responders across the country and giving examples whether it is video or talking to first responders utilizing the technology today is going to be a great opportunity to see what the possibilities are. >> host: why are you acting executive director? >> guest: in the government when people leave posi