AT&T’s Chris McConnel, left, and Timothy Shira, outlined how the transition from legacy to new technology is contributing to commercial growth with IP and cellular communication adoption as installing security contractors upgrade existing systems to replace telephone line communications.
The colleagues also provided an update to AT&T’s $180 billion investment as part of the company’s 25-year contract to build out a new Band Class 14 network in rural areas and across the nation.
McConnel explained:
“This is about preemption. When this is built out you are going to benefit from that uplift in coverage and uplift in capacity if you were to add Band 14. You don’t have to do anything to get the benefit of that. Where you could see a differentiated benefit, potentially, is if there is an event. The preemption of that network is going to push all of the mass market [traffic] off of that network and back onto the commercial and consumer networks and free it up.
“Imagine a congested freeway. When the FirstNet network is activated all of freeway lanes are emptied to allow priority access for the first responders. The security alarm industry has been granted access to that priority. We call it ‘extended primary.’ Primary is life safety; first responders, police, fire, medical. Extended primary is ‘others.’ It might be a utility company to restore the network. You have been given approval to fall into that extended primary.”
