Network Resilience

Applying data-driven insights and business continuity strategies to keep our customers connected and protect our network against disruption. 

Click through to learn about our 2024 impact in action. For detailed network resilience data, please see our corporate responsibility KPI webpage. 

More people are connected than ever before; in fact, as of 2024, 97.1% of the U.S. population is using the internet. When it comes to accessing opportunities, connectivity is a valuable resource for consumers and businesses and, as such, ensuring a reliable, resilient service — whether during everyday operations, times of disaster or network stress — is key. 

We invest in processes, collaborations and asset updates to ensure our network remains strong and operational. Every hour, our Network teams collect billions of service-assurance measurements, analyzing the data in near-real time to improve performance and deliver the best possible customer experiences.

Enhancing Our Network

We’re always expanding and enhancing our network and services, drawing on internal expertise and collaborating with leading partners to bring new technology to bear. Our strategy focuses on:

• Fiber Internet Footprint: We attach as many endpoints as possible to our fiber strands, expanding coverage and enabling fast, low-latency internet service. To ensure customers have connectivity solutions that meet their needs, AT&T Fiber offers identical upload and download speeds of up to 5 gigs across parts of its footprint of more than 100 U.S. metro areas.¹
• 5G Expansion: We have expanded our 5G offering to provide customers with three options, each designed to meet different needs in terms of speed and coverage.
• 4G Investment: We invest in our 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network to provide reliable, high-performing connections wherever our customers are. Our network is designed with core elements strategically distributed across the country so data traffic travels faster, increasing mobile data speeds while enhancing coverage and reliability.

Learn more about how we are investing in network developments in our Innovation & Responsible Technology issue brief.

Ensuring Network Resilience

Our engineers regularly analyze and update cell sites to maintain safe, reliable tower capacity that meets or exceeds applicable building codes. All cell sites feature battery backup or permanent generators to ensure service continuity in the event of power loss.

AT&T’s physical footprint includes approximately 5,000 locations that enable our connectivity services. To drive ongoing network resilience, we invest in strengthening those locations, starting with those that are most critical to providing backhaul for cell services to the wireless network. This includes providing adequate energy capacity to ensure backup power is available during power loss. We also have installed backup power infrastructure to critical locations so portable generators can easily be plugged in if needed.

While we strive continuously to reduce the risk of outages, we also strengthen our network by building in layers of redundancy. We have approximately 120 large cell site aggregation hubs that combine thousands of cell sites, each connected back to a centralized data center. To ensure those aggregation hubs aren’t disconnected when one location goes down, we have invested significantly in creating tertiary links to alternative locations. By doing so, we can keep more customers connected even during times of disruption.

Leveraging Data to Prioritize Response Efforts

Getting customers back online following outages is a priority. To do so in the most efficient way possible, we need to understand where to target our efforts. While customers may be primarily served by one cell site, overlaps in coverage may mean that, even if that primary cell service is lost, they can still get connected via another cell site. Understanding this, we leverage data on how many customers are served by different cell sites to identify which assets to restore first. 

Driving Resilience

Building strong networks that can withstand environmental pressures relies on good preparation. We leverage various tools to proactively monitor weather-related events that could impact our infrastructure, including:

• AT&T Weather Operations Center: AT&T meteorologists monitor potential weather-related threats so we can implement mitigation measures such as disaster response equipment and standby personnel. They also issue updates to network operations teams to help them prepare and protect critical infrastructure from weather impacts.
• Network Disaster Recovery (NDR): We have invested more than $1 billion over the past three decades in our NDR Program, which rapidly restores connectivity to disaster-affected areas. Following a disaster, we activate our internal Emergency Operations Center to coordinate all business areas around timely recovery efforts.
• Disaster Response Procedures: Following disasters or other emergencies, we implement procedures to quickly restore network functionality, provide critical resources to impacted employees, field customer inquiries and return or establish service in impacted communities.

To learn more about our network resilience approach, visit AT&T Disaster Recovery. Customers can access service-specific information about local network outages on our outages website.

Harnessing the Power of Data

To access the best possible data, we collaborate with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. This data, which includes localized projections on wind, drought, wildfire and flooding for up to 30 years in the future, helps us drive network resilience through:

• Prioritizing investments for existing sites: We leverage Argonne National Laboratory’s data to understand which sites could be exposed to impacts. Using these projections, we have developed a vulnerability index to identify which sites could benefit from enhanced hardening against escalating hazards, such as floods. We can then invest in new, more resilient solutions and equipment. Construction and Engineering teams can use Argonne National Laboratory’s data to make more informed decisions.
• Assessing impacts in network planning and site design: We incorporate risk factors into the site selection process for new cell site planning. Equipped with forward-looking insights, our engineers can proactively build lower-risk sites, reducing disaster-related downtime and costs while enhancing long-term resilience. We also integrate relevant data into wireline planning and design systems so engineers can identify where future hazard exposure could be an issue and how to protect new equipment.

Ensuring Business Continuity

Our global team of certified business continuity experts uses a risk-based approach to develop business resumption plans. This is guided by our Business Continuity Management Program, which covers management disciplines, processes and techniques for supporting employees and critical business operations during significant disruption. The program is certified to ISO 22301:2021 and aligns with:

• Disaster Recovery Institute International Professional Practices
• Business Continuity Institute Good Practice Guidelines
• Federal Emergency Management Agency National Incident Management System
• ISO 31000

Through the Business Continuity Management Program, we maintain recovery strategies and procedures that are updated, exercised and certified at least annually. To support tailored incident responses, we also have business unit-specific continuity plans, each of which is assessed and exercised annually to ensure any strategy gaps are identified and addressed.

Keeping First Responders Connected

FirstNet®, Built with AT&T, is the only nationwide, high-speed broadband communications platform dedicated to and purpose-built for America’s first responders and the public safety community. FirstNet is providing first responders with truly dedicated coverage and capacity when they need it, unique benefits like always-on priority and preemption, and high-quality Band 14 spectrum — all of which enable them to communicate quickly and reliably. We built, and maintain, the network in public–private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority),² driving improvements in:

• Coverage: More than 99% of the U.S. population and more than 2.97 million square miles are covered by FirstNet.
• Access: Public safety agencies can access a fleet of more than 180 land-based and airborne portable cell sites. And the FirstNet App Catalog offers applications specifically for public safety needs.
• Impact: FirstNet helps public safety agencies respond rapidly to situations like active shootings, bombings, plane crashes, hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes, mudslides, earthquakes and other emergencies. 

Learn more about FirstNet in our Community Engagement & Philanthropy issue brief.

Employee Support Teams

The success of our Network Disaster Recovery (NDR) and FirstNet teams is bolstered by hundreds of employees across the business who help when disasters and outages occur. These passionate employees are deployed to locations across the U.S. to help in recovery and restoration efforts. Full-time employees who meet specific eligibility criteria can apply to join either support team. They receive specialized web-based and hands-on training.

• NDR Support Team: Members assist in restoring critical communication services during disasters. This includes supporting emergency communications, portable power, base camp logistical support, and hazmat response.
• FirstNet Support Team: Members primarily assist in setting up Satellite Cell on Light Trucks to ensure first responders and the public safety community stays connected during an outage. These trucks are positioned in more than 70 locations across the country to ensure quick deployments.

Network Resilience Governance

Across AT&T, several roles govern network resilience and business continuity:

• Board of Directors: Receives regular reports on network matters from executive leadership, primarily from the Chief Operations Officer.
• Chief Operations Officer: Offers day-to-day oversight of network resilience and business continuity efforts.
• Access Construction & Engineering: Oversees engineering, build and operations of wireline and wireless networks.
• Engineering & Operations: Plans our roadmap for mobility core and broadband growth, network operations support, energy optimization and infrastructure provisioning. Also manages business continuity planning, the Global Technology Operations Center and 24/7 network monitoring.

Learn about our network management policies on our Network Practices website. 

Stakeholder Engagement

We work closely with local communities on all construction activities, including local and state processes for permitting, advance notice and infrastructure investment approvals. If a community expresses concerns about AT&T network investments or activities, it is collected through our state External & Legislative Affairs teams and our Office of the President and reported to the appropriate department for resolution.

As a founding member of the O-RAN Alliance, we also engage with industry peers to advance more intelligent, open, virtualized and fully interoperable mobile networks. We have participated in major open-source initiatives designed to support openness, visibility and security, maximize speed and accelerate innovation while controlling costs.

Advanced Network Performance

At the end of 2024, our global network carried an average of 824.6 petabytes of data daily, an increase of more than 210% since 2018. In 2024, we invested over $22.4 billion, primarily in our wireless and wireline networks, including capital investments and wireless spectrum acquisitions.³

We continue to invest in 5G expansion to deliver high-quality, high-speed connectivity. As of year-end 2024, AT&T 5G using low-band spectrum reaches more than 310 million people in more than 26,100 cities and towns in the U.S.

For the latest information on our deployment and coverage, visit the AT&T Network website.

Strengthening Our Resilience

We continue to strengthen our network against disruptive weather events. For example, when the AT&T Weather Operations Center predicted an above-average 2024 storm season, we quickly worked to deploy new assets and solutions that would keep communities online and connected. This included expanding our maritime fleet with a 45-foot, custom-built landing craft capable of transporting pickup trucks, FirstNet Compact Rapid Deployables and other essential solutions. This vessel joins more than 750 other pieces of specialized response equipment we maintain for quick deployment before, during and after storms.

Throughout the year, we took additional steps to understand our network’s potential exposure to physical risk and how we can mitigate impacts. For example, we have assessed our cell sites to understand if important equipment is sitting above potential flood levels. By doing so, we can reduce the impacts of disruptive weather events on service continuity, including through investing in flood-hardening such as elevating equipment.

We have invested in drone technology to help quickly and efficiently investigate the scale of the damage when natural disasters do occur. Similarly, we have enhanced our emergency communication portable technologies, which restore service to critical facilities when fiber connection is lost.

Investing in Predictive Disaster Response

As well as enhancing our disaster response capabilities, we want to build our resilience against service loss, proactively strengthening our network against outages. That is why we are currently in the process of developing and testing a machine learning solution that can predict when and where disruptive weather events will occur.

By enhancing our understanding of which AT&T sites are at greatest risk of impacts, we can strengthen assets and accelerate disaster response. It also will help reduce customer impacts by supporting more accurate planning for where to deploy back-up generators and prioritize restoration efforts.

Enhancing First Responder Communications

In February 2024, we and the FirstNet Authority announced the next phase of FirstNet. Through a series of strategic investments totaling more than $8 billion over the next decade, we will deliver full 5G capabilities on FirstNet with the creation of a stand-alone 5G core, expand mission-critical services and enhance coverage.

These network upgrades will deliver faster speeds, increased capacity and enhanced service quality so first responders can remain reliably connected during everyday operations, large-scale events and emergencies.

During 2024, FirstNet’s Response Operations Group triaged and deployed more than 2,575 solutions to support public safety’s emergency communications needs.