AT&T CEO Shares Potential 4.9 GHz Vision as FirstNet tops 6.4 Million Connections

AT&T this week announced that FirstNet supports more than 6.4 million connections for more than 29,000 public-safety agencies, while CEO John Stankey applauded the recent FCC vote granting the FirstNet Authority control over usage of 4.9 GHz spectrum via a sharing agreement with a nationwide band manager.

Stankey made the comments during AT&T quarterly conference call with analysts, during which he highlighted the efforts of AT&T personnel—notably, members of the carrier’s FirstNet team—to help the communications efforts in the wake of recent natural disasters.

“Our FirstNet organization provides a meaningfully differentiated product to public safety during events like these,” Stankey said during the Wednesday conference call, which was webcast. “Our organization dedicated to supporting our growing public-safety base on FirstNet responded to 200 requests during the Hurricane Helene recovery. This was one of our largest emergency-response efforts ever.

“These efforts are nothing short of remarkable. It’s exactly why more than 29,000 public-safety agencies and organizations—including the New York City Police Department, the Fire Department of New York City, and the North Carolina Department of Public Safety—choose FirstNet, the only dedicated communications platform for public safety.”