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by autoexec 648 days ago
There are still four distinct national wireless networks (soon to be consolidated/reduced to three I think), each with their strengths and weaknesses, but if the government needs their own for national security reasons they should get one. No single for-profit company, which could go out of business at any time and for any reason, should be able to put the security of the entire USA and it's critical government services at risk. Too big to fail means too big to exist.
2 comments
simfree 648 days ago
The government decided building their own cellular network was too expensive, so they paid AT&T to build FirstNet atop the existing network and gave AT&T band 14 spectrum to do that.

All users of both AT&T and FirstNet get access to a much larger pool of wireless bandwidth, resulting in faster speeds for everyone involved, and a much lower cost to build out a network dedicated to first responders. In the event of crisis, FirstNet will get priority on the band 14 spectrum.

Dish is not a viable provider todau and didn't exist in 2016 when FirstNet went out to bid.

Verizon is unwilling to densify their suburban and rural networks to meet the coverage requirements, so they passed on bidding for FirstNet.

T-Mobile felt FirstNet was too big a lift when they didn't have clarity on the 600Mhz spectrum auction (which wrapped up in 2017) nor the rural coverage and suburban density they have today.

https://www.designworldonline.com/firstnet-bids-are-in-now-t...

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vanchor3 648 days ago
As far as I've seen AT&T and Verizon are the only ones getting contracts, never T-Mobile or US Cellular.

I personally have seen much greater damage from other contractor's failures (Microsoft, Oracle, etc.) than AT&T or Verizon could cause. When you've suddenly lost email, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, the phone is as useless as the computer.

But the sad reality I've experienced is that a fiber seeking backhoe hundreds of miles away cripples half your network and Lumen insists there is nothing that can be done to prevent this. And everyone just goes along with this.

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