AT&T CEO Defends Proposal to Hand 4.9 GHZ Band to FirstNet

WASHINGTON, August 5, 2014 – AT&T CEO John Stankey last week got involved in the dispute over whether to allocate valuable spectrum to FirstNet, the nationwide first responder network operated by AT&T. He met with three of the top Federal Communications Commission officials to defend the proposal.

Stankey met with FCC commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks on July 31, and Nathan Simington on August 1. He “highlighted the broad support within public safety labor and management organizations for action by the Commission to facilitate use of the 4.9 GHz band by the FirstNet Authority to achieve greater public safety utilization of the band. He also disputed claims that such action would result in a multi-billion dollar windfall for AT&T,” according to AT&T an in ex parte filing posted Friday.

Indeed, the Communications Workers of America union, which represents more than 150,000 AT&T workers, submitted a letter on August 1 arguing that “allocating the 4.9 GHz band to a single nationwide licensee rather than multiple commercial users would facilitate rapid and efficient nationwide deployment and stop the slow and fragmented approach that has led to prolonged underutilization of the band in the last 20 years.”

The 4.9 GHz band was set aside by the FCC for local public safety users. In January 2023, the agency proposed instituting a band manager to increase utilization as demand for spectrum increased. A group called the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance, headed by a former FirstNet vice chairman, proposed issuing the FirstNet Authority, the government agency that oversees FirstNet, a nationwide license to use the band for its network.

Other wireless carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile did not like the PSSA plan, arguing that the move would amount to a windfall for AT&T, which is allowed to use dormant FirstNet spectrum for commercial purposes under its contract. The companies commissioned a study that valued the 4.9 GHz band at about $14 billion.