AT&T says FirstNet provides more than 5.5 million connections to about 27,500 agencies

FirstNet provides more than 5.5 million connections to approximately 27,500 public-safety agencies subscribing to the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) as of the end of 2023, according to figures released yesterday by AT&T, the FirstNet Authority contractor tasked with building and maintaining the system.

AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches noted the FirstNet adoptions as he highlighted the performance of the carrier’s Business Solution unit, which saw its wireless-services revenue grow almost 6% during the fourth quarter.

“This is an area where we continue to grow faster than our nearest peer,” Desroches said during AT&T’s conference call with financial analysts. “FirstNet also continues to be a growth vector for us, with wireless connections growing by about 260,000 sequentially.”

It is not clear how many of these FirstNet wireless connections represent full-fledged postpaid phone additions, but the FirstNet growth contributed to AT&T’s 526,000 total postpaid phone net additions for the fourth quarter of 2023. For the year, FirstNet adoption grew by 1.1 million connections and more than 3,000 public-safety agencies, while AT&T reported an increase of 1.7 million net postpaid phone additions in 2023.

These fourth-quarter figures represent a slowdown in the growth rate of the LTE-based FirstNet, as it marked the second consecutive quarter in which AT&T reported less than 300,000 new NPSBN connections and the first time in years that the number of public-safety agencies added during a quarter clearly dipped below the 1,000 mark.

Even with this recent decrease in its growth rate, the FirstNet adoption story continues to exhibit remarkable strength, particularly when compared to industry expectations that existed when the FirstNet Authority was created in 2012 and when AT&T was awarded the NPSBN contract in 2017.

During those years, many industry observers questioned how many subscribers FirstNet could ever attract, as the total number of traditional public-safety personnel—those working for fire, EMS and law-enforcement departments—in the U.S. was believed to be between 3 million and 4 million. In addition, several officials doubted that FirstNet would be able to gain significant amounts of subscribers until the 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum was deployed throughout a majority of the U.S., which was expected to take multiple years.

But AT&T accelerated this adoption timeline. When it was awarded the FirstNet contract in March 2017, the carrier announced that it would voluntarily provide FirstNet subscribers with priority and preemption services across all of its commercial spectrum bands supporting 4G LTE services, not just the 700 MHz Band 14 airwaves licensed to the FirstNet Authority.

In addition, FirstNet’s subscriber base not only includes traditional public-safety personnel—known as “primary” users—but also others who support and supplement public-safety efforts—known as “extended primary” users—such as utility, government, transportation, hospital and other critical-infrastructure employees.

Yesterday’s FirstNet adoption totals are the first figures shared since the FirstNet Authority last month announced that it has accepted AT&T’s initial five-year nationwide buildout of the NPSBN on the 20 MHz of 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum licensed to the FirstNet Authority.

This milestone marks the end of federal-government money—all of which came from FCC spectrum-auction proceeds—being paid to AT&T in association with FirstNet. Under the 2017 contract for the NPSBN, AT&T had the opportunity to earn as much as $6.5 billion by executing the initial five-year FirstNet buildout correctly and on time.

While the federal-government money allocated to FirstNet is gone, the FirstNet Authority should have plenty of funding through March 2042, when the current 25-year agreement with AT&T is scheduled to expire. Under the terms of the contract, AT&T is required to pay the FirstNet Authority annually an ever-increasing amount of money for the right to utilize the Band 14 spectrum for commercial purposes when it is not needed by public safety.

In total, AT&T is scheduled to pay $18 billion to the FirstNet Authority during the life of the 25-year contract. Of this total, less than $3 billion is expected to fund the FirstNet Authority’s operations. The remaining $15 billion is required to be utilized to pay for improvements to the FirstNet system, and only a small fraction of this discretionary funding has been utilized during the first seven years of the contract.

On Monday, FirstNet Authority board members are scheduled to meet, and the agenda calls for the board to listen to a “recommendation on network investments” and later vote on a “network evolution” resolution.