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.