FirstNet's fight for customers will continue long past opt-in deadline

FirstNet and AT&T continue to garner commitments from states and territories looking to use the nation’s first dedicated network for emergency workers. Even if they get every region they’re targeting, though, they’ll have to continue to fight to win over local municipalities. And that won’t be an easy task.

Earlier in 2017, the U.S. Department of Commerce granted AT&T the right to build the nation’s first network dedicated to first responders. States have a legal right to opt out of FirstNet’s service, but if they choose another service provider, the network must be interoperable with FirstNet’s offering. Securing the contract was viewed as a major win for AT&T, which will get access to FirstNet’s 20 MHz of 700 MHz low-band spectrum and $6.5 billion for designing and operating the nationwide network for federal, state and local authorities, with the right to sell excess capacity on the system. AT&T will spend roughly $40 billion over the life of the 25-year contract to deploy and maintain the network, the Department of Commerce said, integrating its network assets with FirstNet.