FirstNet Band 14 coverage serves about half of U.S. rural population

About half the rural population within the U.S. is within the FirstNet coverage footprint for operations using 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum licensed to the FirstNet Authority, according to the FirstNet Authority’s annual report to Congress that was released last week.

Although the information in the report is about seven months old—reflecting the FirstNet Authority’s fiscal year 2019, which concluded at the end of September—the figures should be notable to public-safety representatives who have expressed concern about AT&T’s deployment of Band 14 in rural areas of the United States.

“FirstNet has prioritized buildout in rural America,” the FirstNet Authority’s annual report states. “As of September 2019, the FirstNet Solution allows the public-safety community to serve approximately 45% of the rural population; that is about 23 million of the approximately 51 million people who constitute the Nation’s rural population.

To read the full version of this story, visit Urgent Communications.