AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has said that upgrading the company’s FirstNet sites to support 5G will largely be a matter of scaling equipment and deploying a software update.
FirstNet is AT&T’s dedicated network for first responders and is designed to serve all 50 states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, including rural communities and tribal lands within those areas.
Speaking at an investor conference, Stephenson explained: “We’ll be equipping every single cell site for 5G such that, when 5G is ready to go — when it’s ready for prime time — our turn-up of 5G is a software load, it’s a software upgrade.”
AT&T plans to construct roughly 15,000 towers in the first year of the FirstNet program and up to about 45,000 over five years. While the software activation may be straightforward, physically scaling and preparing that many cell sites is a significant logistical undertaking.
“To build out this FirstNet capability, this first responder network, we have to go climb every cell tower,” Stephenson added. “Literally, we have to go touch every cell tower over the next couple of years.”
The company has also committed to launching 5G services in 12 cities by the end of the year, and Stephenson’s remarks imply AT&T expects to be able to switch on 5G from FirstNet-equipped towers in 2019.
AT&T’s approach is strategic: by installing FirstNet hardware — which often gains local approval more easily because it benefits emergency services — the carrier can concurrently prepare sites for 5G. This dual-purpose deployment helps accelerate 5G readiness while fulfilling public-safety obligations.
FirstNet receives government support, and AT&T has also committed its own investment, reporting a contribution on the order of $40 billion over 25 years to deploy and maintain the network.
In addition, AT&T expects that fiber required to support FirstNet and 5G infrastructure will reach roughly 14 million locations within the next 12 months, improving backhaul capacity for both public-safety and commercial services.
(Image Credit: Randall Stephenson, COO AT&T at Mplanet by Josh Hallett used under CC BY 2.0)
What are your thoughts on AT&T’s strategy with FirstNet and 5G? Let us know in the comments.
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