T-Mobile’s Business Push, Technology Advantages, and 5G Slicing with Daryl Schoolar

Full Transcript

Don Kellogg 0m10s

Hello, and welcome to the two hundred and thirty fifth episode of The Week with Roger, a conversation between analysts about all things telecom, media, and technology by Recon Analytics. I'm Don Kellogg, and with me as always is Roger Entner. How are doing, Roger?

Roger Entner 0m22s

Hey. I'm good.

Don Kellogg 0m24s

So, Roger, this week, we're pleased to have Scott Agnew, president of the FirstNet program at AT&T on today. Scott, welcome to the podcast.

Guest Speaker 0m32s

Thanks, Don, and thanks, Roger. Thanks for having me.

Roger Entner 0m35s

Well, thanks for for telling us more about FirstNet. You know, the first responder space is a very competitive place, and we have a number of providers. How is FirstNet different?

Guest Speaker 0m48s

Yeah. Roger, we really see FirstNet in a league of its own. It's an entire program that's built from the ground up exclusively for America's first responders. It's the only program that's held accountable by the federal government. And we really start with a dedicated corps with dedicated band 14 spectrum to ensure that public safety has that end to end priority.

Guest Speaker 1m15s

In addition, through this public private partnership with the federal government, we're held accountable to deliver a highly dedicated secure core four g and five g connectivity and priority that's always on, always connected. It doesn't matter if it's four g. It doesn't matter if it's five g. It doesn't matter of the type of device. It has to work in the worst possible conditions.

Guest Speaker 1m38s

And, again, we do that through constant iterations, constant evolution, and that accountability to the government where it just has to work. We have no choice. This is not business decisions we're making. It's a twenty five year commitment to public safety that we signed up for in 02/2017, and we're going on our eighth year. And we're seeing massive amounts of adoption with over 6,700,000 connections.

Guest Speaker 2m6s

And the reason why we've done that is we start with a layered approach from a connectivity standpoint. We have over 250,000 more square miles macro covered, and that's due to the initial 6 and a half billion dollars that was invested in the network by the FirstNet authority. Again, none of it was taxpayer dollars. It's all part of this public private partnership. So it's advantaged the public safety sector here.

Guest Speaker 2m33s

We have over 1,200 sites that were built as part of the opt in process that we negotiated with each state that improved coverage. Over 2,000 sites that were improved on with our roaming partners to ensure not only where you're either on the AT&T network or on the roaming provider's network, they would get that dedicated band 14 priority and preemption. And we continue to evolve this. As part of our recent agreement with the authority as of last year, 8,300,000,000.0 in incremental investment. We've added a thousand new purpose built sites for public safety.

Guest Speaker 3m9s

These aren't sites that AT&T are selecting. These are sites that public safety is telling us where they want it. So this isn't business decisions. These are public safety decisions building this network. And as part of that $8,300,000,000, approximately 2.3 is gonna be invested in coverage.

Guest Speaker 3m27s

That's about three to 4,000 sites. That's incremental to what AT&T is already doing and already adding band 14. And we're working closely with public safety right now to determine where those sites are, whether they're on the border, on ports of entry, or in specific areas where public safety has needs. So it's a community effort. It's a platform.

Guest Speaker 3m49s

It's always on, always connected, and it's always prioritized. There's no need for a slice because you have the entire network.

Roger Entner 3m57s

So let me ask a little bit more. With the opt in, you work together with public safety in all the different states to figure out where new sites should be built to identify places where coverage should be improved so that first responders can do their job?

Guest Speaker 4m18s

That's absolutely correct. FirstNet was a choice. Each state had to opt in and choose to either be a part of the FirstNet program or to utilize funding to build their own network. All 50 states and six territories, including Pacific territories, USVI, Puerto Rico, all said yes. But as part of that opt in process, the states and public safety within that states had a voice.

Guest Speaker 4m46s

And we did a lot of things for public safety, such as developing deployable solutions that they could use on their own as well as build sites. In fact, there's over 500 deployables that are owned by public safety today, and they can choose when and where it's deployed on the network. So the states told us where they needed it, and AT&T as the contractor delivered coverage.

Roger Entner 5m10s

Alright. Maybe you can tell our audience what is exactly a deployable.

Guest Speaker 5m15s

Yeah. That's a great question. A deployable, we use terms such as sell on light truck, sell on wheels, or comp CRD, which is compact rapid deployable. Just think of that as a mobile cell tower in different sizes, whether it's a size of a truck or size of a trailer or public safety in an event where maybe coverage doesn't exist or coverage has been compromised in a particular area and public safety is operating there, they can actually deploy that tower, deploy the antenna, turn it on, and immediately get band 14 coverage to do their job. It's backhauled through the satellite, satellite connectivity that's provided to public safety, and they don't miss a beat priority and preemption.

Guest Speaker 6m0s

They get connectivity when and where it matters most.

Roger Entner 6m3s

And public safety is picking where these mobile cell sites are going.

Guest Speaker 6m8s

The ones they own, absolutely, the 500. Now there's over a 180 that we have built from an AT&T perspective, a FirstNet perspective that we operate. And so in times of disasters such as Helene, Milton, the LA fires, we will work with public safety. We'll work with their emergency operation centers, determine where that coverage is needed based off of where they're operating. Whether it's a search and rescue team, whether there's a large public safety event, we'll deploy for them.

Guest Speaker 6m40s

Right? And we have a commitment to be there within fourteen hours, much of which we're already staging, already collaborating with public safety, and we beat that requirement. That's not to mention the hundreds of assets that AT&T owns. Right? So we use those assets too, but there is a 180 that is just dedicated for the sole purpose of operating for public safety.

Guest Speaker 7m1s

If you're out in LA in the fires and you saw just the massive amount of command centers that were there, we had dozens of deployables out there supporting their operations. And if they asked us to move that deployable because their search and rescue operation move, we would do that. That's of no cost to public safety. It's fully about the integration when I say FirstNet is not just a network. It's an entire program.

Guest Speaker 7m25s

That's a huge part of it.

Roger Entner 7m26s

Then the other question is, you mentioned that public safety has band 14, and you have a dedicated core for FirstNet. Does that mean that the first responders can only use band 14 and nothing else?

Guest Speaker 7m42s

We integrated a unique approach because we knew there'd be an evolution of four g, five g, even six g. Public safety will get all the g's. Right? And we know they need maximum capacity, so we developed what's called an all band approach. So all our LTE bands, five g bands, we provide priority and preemption capabilities for public safety to communicate.

Guest Speaker 8m5s

So they get maximum capacity. Now they obviously have their dedicated spectrum of band 14 when it matters most, And so they have that dedicated lane always. So in a sunny day environment, they're using five g. Right? We were the first public safety organization to launch five g.

Guest Speaker 8m25s

We did that in 2021, so public safety has been enjoying that. But really what's key when reliability matters most, when connectivity matters most, they have that dedicated lane of band 14.

Roger Entner 8m37s

Excellent. So what's coming next?

Guest Speaker 8m40s

Well, what's coming next is a whole host of innovation. We just recently launched iterations of a product that we called MegaRange. That's high powered user equipment. Something that's dedicated only to band 14, only allowed on band 14. It's basically a one dot two watt device.

Guest Speaker 8m58s

You know, normal cell phone, what your listeners are listening on is point two. And so it's six times the strength of a standard device. So think maritime, think border coverage, think rural, that these devices allow public safety to get farther while still maintaining speeds. We're also reached an agreement with AST. AST will be launching satellite service here for public safety.

Guest Speaker 9m25s

We know text isn't good enough. They need voice. They need data. They need connectivity and to be able to operate how they operate. So that will be launching with priority and preemption with a public safety first mentality.

Guest Speaker 9m39s

In fact, we've been working with them for the last seven years in ensuring that we have the right solution and it's built with first responders first. We've also launched the first mission critical push to talk solution in the world, and we're continuing to iterate with more devices. We recently launched an integrated device with l three Harris. So that's your traditional LMR radio device that has the FirstNet client built in driving interoperability because we know it's not just about connectivity. Connectivity is foundational.

Guest Speaker 10m12s

It's a must have. It has to work in the worst possible conditions. But now we're getting into the evolution of interoperability, coming to public safety where they operate. So integrating with their land mobile radio solutions. We already have radio based solutions.

Guest Speaker 10m26s

We're moving to IP based solutions, hardware based solution, and moving away from hardware based. So you're gonna see a lot of new technology coming. We've also provide complete transparency to our network. As a first responder on our network, they get to see the sites that are functioning or the sites in maintenance. We're expanding that visibility, getting more granular.

Guest Speaker 10m49s

Why? Because public safety needs complete situational awareness in what's going on with their network. This is unprecedented. I've talked with many other countries that are launching mission critical voice networks. It's not something that's done anywhere else.

Roger Entner 11m3s

That's quite the list of innovation that you're bringing here to the table.

Guest Speaker 11m9s

Right. It's contractual you know, not only is it it's needed for public safety and we believe in it and we're passionate about it, it's also contractually obligated. We're required to develop. But it's we're doing it willingly because we know it helps our first responders communicate, it helps our communities, and it helps them go home safe.

Roger Entner 11m28s

So how is it working with the FirstNet authority? How is that relationship going with the government?

Guest Speaker 11m34s

It's a tremendous advantage. It's an absolute tremendous advantage because this public private partnership that they're coming to the table with oversight, holding us accountable, making sure that we're giving the absolute best and improving on that best, also because they are the voice of public safety. That's their job. That's in the legislation that they have to consistently do outreach and learn from public safety, and we get that fed back in. It helps us with our requirements.

Guest Speaker 12m4s

It helps us with enhancements to the network. Anything on the network that they see improvement in the multitude of hundreds and hundreds of reports that we have to provide, we have to take action on. But it's just been they've been facilitating that relationship that allows us just to get better and better. Just they're the voice of public safety, and that's why the FirstNet authority is so critical in their existence.

Roger Entner 12m28s

Well, terrific. Thank you, Scott, for giving us a terrific overview over a program that I'm sure a lot of people didn't know enough but needed to know more. Appreciate you coming on the show.

Guest Speaker 12m41s

Roger, appreciate your time. Thank you. And thank you, Don.

Don Kellogg 12m44s

Alright. Thanks, Roger. We'll talk next week.

Roger Entner 12m46s

Talk to you next week.