FirstNet Adds Provide Subscriber Cushion for AT&T
AT&T said Monday that FirstNet has continued to grow, hitting “more than 7 million public safety connections.” That figure is up by about 300,000 since the end of 2024, a positive development for AT&T as it competes for phone subscribers, New Street’s Philip Burnett told investors Monday. It probably means 90,000-110,000 FirstNet postpaid phones adds in Q1, based on prior trends, he said.
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AT&T has also added 20,000 square miles of terrestrial wireless coverage in the past year, with FirstNet now covering more than 2.99 million square miles, the carrier said.
“FirstNet has tended to account for around a quarter of total postpaid phone adds at AT&T over the last several years,” Burnett said. “However, we wouldn’t use that ratio to predict total adds in 1Q25 as we believe consumer wireless market growth is slowing and the consumer and public safety markets are largely uncorrelated.” To meet analyst expectations, AT&T will need to have added 120,000-175,000 postpaid phones outside FirstNet, he said. “Still, the news this morning is a reminder that in a tougher environment for adds, FirstNet is at least a cushion; AT&T has a source of adds that others don’t.”