AT&T’s CEO: After FirstNet tower climbs, 5G will be a software upgrade

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said that the company’s work to upgrade its network with FirstNet’s 700 MHz spectrum will position it to move to 5G network technology via a software upgrade. “To build out this FirstNet capability, this first responder network, we have to go climb every cell tower. Literally, we have to go touch every cell tower over the next couple of years,” explained Stephenson. "As we're touching those cell towers, every single one of them, we have a lot of spectrum in inventory. We will be lighting that spectrum up as we touch each cell tower." Added Stephenson: "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.”