Washington, D.C., (August 13, 2024) – The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) today filed an ex parte letter urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject a proposal by the Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) to transfer control of the 4.9 GHz spectrum band out of the hands of state and local users and into the hands of the FirstNet Authority (FNA) and a single commercial carrier, AT&T. CERCI argues that this move would compromise the integrity and reliability of public safety communications.

The filing highlights recent incidents impacting AT&T and FirstNet customers that demonstrate the risks associated with centralizing public safety communications with a single commercial network. The February 2024 network outage experienced by AT&T and the significant data breach in 2022/2023 revealed vulnerabilities in AT&T’s commercial operations that impacted FirstNet customers, thereby undermining critical first responder communications.

The filing also cites two government reports that were issued last month regarding the AT&T network outage. A report by the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau provided key details about the AT&T outage, including its impact on FirstNet users while the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a Management Alert, raising significant concerns about the overall resilience of FirstNet service and its independence from AT&T’s commercial network. OIG even called on AT&T’s commercial network into question the independence of the FirstNet core network from AT&T’s commercial infrastructure.

CERCI again emphasized that incorporating the 4.9 GHz band into AT&T’s FirstNet network makes sense only for one party – AT&T, and referred to recent comments by AT&T’s Chief Executive Officer about how the company’s need for more spectrum might be accomplished by “tweaking some rules”. 

CERCI concludes that recent events on AT&T’s network demonstrate that handing over the 4.9 GHz band to FirstNet and AT&T would undermine redundancy and security, both of which are critical for reliable public safety communications. 

To learn more about CERCI, please visit responsecoalition.com.  

CONTACT: Jo Maney (jmaney@bgrpr.com)

ABOUT THE COALITION FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) is committed to maintaining local control of vital 4.9 GHz public-safety spectrum and working with the FCC to promote innovative usage of the band including non-interfering critical infrastructure uses. The founding members of the CERCI are Competitive Carriers Association, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), Major Cities Chiefs Association, National Sheriffs Association, T-Mobile, Verizon, and UScellular. Additional members include the California State Sheriffs’ Association, the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies.