How AT&T won DFW Airport’s $10 million private 5G business

According to Mike Youngs, it all started with the bathrooms at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport.

Youngs, the airport’s VP for IT, wanted to use wireless technology to reduce crowding in restroom lines during the COVID-19 pandemic. His team installed sensors and lights above stalls and monitors outside restrooms to let people know when doors were locked and stalls were occupied. But the sensors kept losing their connection to the airport’s Wi-Fi network, which was operated by a third party.

Youngs realized the bathroom sensors were just the tip of the iceberg for DFW.

As one of the world’s largest airports – DFW hosts 72.2 million passengers per year and employs 30,000 people across 26.9 miles – the venue would likely need to implement many similar systems in the future, from escalator monitors to baggage tracking. The airport would need a scalable wireless platform to handle all those kinds of Internet of things (IoT) systems, according to Youngs, and it would need to be controlled by the airport.

Flexibility “has been the mantra,” Youngs said during a recent presentation at the Connect X trade show in New Orleans. “We really need a private wireless network.”

The tests, and the RFP

DFW commissioned two trials to establish the technology’s viability. One involved a wireless network in unlicensed 3.5GHz CBRS spectrum deployed by startup Betacom at gate A9, to track baggage. Betacom, along with Druid Software and Airspan, supplied the network’s core, radio access network (RAN), computing capabilities and security software.

DFW’s second CBRS trial involved Samsung and Harman, the connected vehicle and audio specialist that Samsung acquired in 2016. The goal of the trial was to evaluate the efficacy of a private CBRS network for tracking cargo assets.

The tests convinced Youngs of the wisdom of buying and operating a private wireless network inside DFW. The next step was finding a vendor for a full installation.

The airport issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the project in late 2021. Youngs said 12 companies attended DFW’s initial RFP information session, including all three major wireless carriers.

AT&T – which is headquartered in Dallas – announced in early May that it won the five-year, $10 million contract. DFW’s leadership approved the contract shortly thereafter.

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