The companies said it was a “multi-year” and “long-term” agreement but did not specify a time period or a value for the contract.
Steve Vondran, president of American Tower’s US tower division, said: “This agreement provides for an extended mutually rewarding strategic relationship, and we’re excited to help AT&T deliver the next generation of wireless technology to consumers, businesses and first responders quickly and efficiently.”
AT&T won the contract to build and operate FirstNet, the US government network for first responders, in 2017 and the telco is now rolling out the service. It has a 25-year contract worth $46.5 billion to build the nationwide network, which uses 4G technology.
JR Wilson, AT&T’s vice president of tower strategy and roaming, said: “This comprehensive agreement is expected to drive mutual value and growth through a simplified leasing process designed to drive efficiency and flexibility improvements directly benefitting our speed in deploying the latest technologies.”
The deal “is essential for executing on both our 5G and FirstNet network builds”, added Wilson. “It ultimately helps us better serve our customers and first responders nationwide.”
Neither company said how many towers will be involved. Worldwide American Tower has 171,000 communications sites.
