AT&T says FirstNet tops 21,800 agencies, 3.7 million connections

FirstNet added 319,000 connections during the second quarter of this year, resulting in the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) serving more than 21,800 public-safety agencies with more than 3.7 million connections, according to officials for FirstNet contractor AT&T.

AT&T provided the FirstNet figures in conjunction with the release of its second-quarter corporate performance on Thursday, when the carrier giant boasted 813,000 postpaid net postpaid phone additions—AT&T’s top second-quarter total in more than a decade, CEO John Stankey said during the company’s quarterly call.

These wireless gains were realized despite the presence of inflation and other negative pressures in the economy, and they continue AT&T’s recent momentum in the wireless space, Stankey.

“Over the last eight quarters, we’ve achieved an industry-best 6 million postpaid phone net adds,” Stankey said.

And a significant portion of that growth has come through FirstNet, the NPSBN that AT&T has been building in partnership with the FirstNet Authority for the past five years. During the last two years, FirstNet has added more than 2.2 million connections for more than new 8,800 subscribing public-safety agencies.

This adoption rate is particularly significant in light of the fact that many industry observers initially did not expect FirstNet to begin attracting public-safety agencies and connections at a large scale until the buildout of the 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum leased to the FirstNet Authority was almost complete. However, AT&T drastically altered that thinking upon being awarded the FirstNet contract in March 2017, when the carrier committed to providing FirstNet users with priority and preemption across its vast commercial LTE spectrum, as well as Band 14.

In addition to the adoption figures, AT&T supplied several other FirstNet statistics to IWCE’s Urgent Communications:

• More than 200 applications have been approved to be used on the FirstNet system;
• More than 450 devices have received the FirstNet Ready designation;
• FirstNet’s fleet includes more than 150 dedicated deployable assets; and
• FirstNet’s Response Operations Group deployed more than 450 solutions during the second quarter, compared to 125 during the first three months of the year.

AT&T officials did not provide an update about the progress of its Band 14 deployment efforts yesterday. AT&T announced last September that it had surpassed the 95% threshold of its five-year buildout plan, reaching that milestone about six months ahead of schedule.

Officials for both AT&T and the FirstNet Authority have noted that the final 5% of any nationwide buildout typically includes some of the most difficult siting challenges in the buildout plan, but there is consensus that AT&T will complete the planned Band 14 buildout by the contracted date at the end March 2023.

Early this year, AT&T indicated in an SEC filing that it expected to collect its final payment from the FirstNet Authority—more than $600 million of the $6.5 billion total in the contract—in 2022, implying that it would finish the Band 14 deployment well before the end of the year.

Whether AT&T will finish the Band 14 buildout early enough to collect its final payment from the FirstNet Authority this year may be questionable, based on some recent guidance from AT&T officials. However, most public-safety representatives have noted that the exact completion date of the initial FirstNet building may be more significant to financial analysts than first responders, as long as the contracted March 2023 deadline is met.