AT&T, Verizon Tangle Over 5G Service for Emergency Responders

Two of the nation’s major telecommunications companies are feuding over a plan to boost service for police, firefighters and other state and local agencies—a move Verizon Communications says would amount to a $14 billion gift to rival AT&T. AT&T and its allies are asking regulators to provide more wireless frequencies to FirstNet, a cellular network launched in 2017 to connect emergency responders and other public-sector groups. AT&T holds an exclusive 25-year contract to run the network for the federal FirstNet Authority, which oversees the project. Rival telecom companies say the proposal would let AT&T’s commercial business piggyback on those airwaves free. Verizon, which vies with FirstNet for public-safety contracts, called the proposal a giveaway of spectrum valued at around $14 billion that would give its competitor a “substantial windfall.” T-Mobile US likewise urged regulators to avoid a “FirstNet takeover” of the spectrum. The carrier hasn’t made its case as forcefully as Verizon, whose chief executive traveled to Washington twice in recent weeks to lobby regulators. The next decision will fall to the Federal Communications Commission. The regulator has fielded comments about how to encourage more public-safety agencies to tap the airwaves, which are mostly used today by big-city systems such as Bay Area Rapid Transit and the New York Police Department.