AT&T says FirstNet unit grew 60% to a $1.7 billion business in 2021

FirstNet has been an “undisputed success” for AT&T, growing 60% in 2021 to generate $1.7 billion in revenue for the carrier giant that has been contracted to build and maintain the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN), according to an AT&T official.

Rasesh Patel, chief product and platform officer for AT&T Business, also updated the coverage statistics for FirstNet users during a presentation made yesterday during AT&T’s virtual Analyst and Investor Day event.

“Reaching more than 2.9 million square miles across the country with [700 MHz ] Band 14 and AT&T LTE bands, FirstNet covers more first responders than any commercial network in the country,” Patel said. “FirstNet has rapidly grown into a $1.7 billion business, which posted 60% year-over-year growth in 2021.”

This FirstNet coverage figure in excess of 2.9 million square miles is about 100,000 square miles more than the 2.81 million square miles cited by AT&T—based on third-party data, according to the company—less than three weeks ago. At that time, AT&T claimed that the coverage area of 2.81 million square miles was 50,000 square miles more than the wireless footprint provided by any other commercial carrier in the U.S.

Patel also noted the growing set of solutions offered through FirstNet, “including connected body cams, fleet, surveillance and interoperable push-to-talk communication with more than 7 million public-safety radio users.

Jenifer Robertson, AT&T Mobility executive vice president and general manager, reiterated FirstNet adoption figures released in January—more than 3 million connections for 19,500 public-safety agencies—while claiming that “we’re just getting started” in the first-responder sector.

“We’ve expanded the market and will continue to do so through incremental new connections like body cams, connected cruisers, school buses, biometrics and 2-way radio devices,” Robertson said during the AT&T virtual event. “FirstNet was a deliberate focus for us, one where we made a commitment to asymmetrical share gain, and we delivered. It’s yielded strong growth and gave us a playbook we can continue to run for other customer segments.”

Indeed, Patel said that FirstNet’s growth has played a key role in the overall strength of AT&T’s mobile wireless business. Not only has the FirstNet customer base bolstered AT&T’s small-business market share as a standalone business, the network-buildout obligations under the 25-year contract with the FirstNet Authority—combined with AT&T’s fiber-deployment initiatives—are helping the carrier realize new deals in other sectors.

“In 2021, AT&T won 53% of postpaid phone flow share [among U.S. carriers], the highest-value business mobility service,” Patel said. “This was driven by momentum in small business, and by the undisputed success of FirstNet. In fact, over the last 18 months, our small business wireless market share has improved from mid-30s to 40%.

“As we expand fiber footprint and distribution for mid-market businesses, we see a similar opportunity to expand share, which is currently in the low 20s today. We are also the share leader in IoT connectivity, which is now a $1.3 billion business that is growing 18% year-over-year.”

AT&T did not provide any updates today about its progress in its buildout of the FirstNet system on Band 14 spectrum—the primary requirement of the carrier’s 25-year deal with the FirstNet Authority. In October, AT&T announced that it has completed more than 95% of the contracted Band 14 deployment for the FirstNet system, surpassing the milestone about 6 months ahead of schedule.

Under the agreement with the FirstNet Authority, AT&T is supposed to complete the initial FirstNet buildout in March 2023—five years from the first network-buildout task order being issued in March 2018. AT&T officials verbally have expressed confidence that the company will meet this schedule. A recent SEC filing indicates that AT&T expects to finish the network buildout during this calendar year, so it can receive the final payment of the $6.5 billion it could earn by building the NPSBN within the contracted time.