ATN International teases a big carrier deal beyond FirstNet work

ATN International executives said the company expects to ink an agreement with “another national carrier” during its current fiscal quarter. But they didn’t provide details about the structure of the agreement or reveal the identity of the carrier.

In 2019, AT&T agreed to pay ATN’s Commnet Wireless $167.5 million to build and maintain AT&T’s wireless network in the Southwestern US. AT&T said it would use the network for its own commercial mobile services and for public safety offerings delivered through FirstNet. FirstNet is a government agency charged with offering nationwide wireless services to public safety users.

“These partnerships with the national mobile carriers are a testament to our strong and reliable offerings, scalability, deep and broad local operating capabilities and brand reputation,” ATN CEO Michael Prior boasted during his company’s recent quarterly earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.

The financial analysts at Raymond James expressed hope that ATN’s new carrier deal plays out differently than its initial agreement with AT&T for FirstNet. ATN had planned to be finished with its FirstNet work in 2021, but Prior reported last week that the project is still only about 75% complete.

ATN “has a project with another nationwide carrier in the pipeline, though it will be different in structure from FirstNet, have positive margins, help optimize costs, and have an underpinning of long-term recurring revenues,” the Raymond James analysts wrote. “We are highly interested in learning more details when the contract is finalized.”

The analysts noted that the remaining revenues from ATN’s FirstNet construction project should amount to around $12 million to $14 million, well below initial expectations of $27 million. Further, construction of some sites is getting pushed into 2024 while others are being canceled altogether.

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