AT&T delivers 5G & Networking Capabilities to Air Force Bases

AT&T* will bring 5G and a broad array of Networking-as-a-Service capabilities to support the work of more than 24,000 military personnel on U.S. Air Force bases Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; and Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.

“We’re proud and honored to bring AT&T 5G and other highly innovative commercial networking-as-a-service capabilities to the Air Force,” said Anne Chow, Chief Executive Officer, AT&T Business. “We are helping the Air Force optimize the value of our 5G and other networking capabilities at these 3 bases and stand ready to work with them to extend these services across the entirety of the Air Force if they so choose.”

The U.S. Air Force is testing our commercial Networking-as-a-Service capabilities at these three bases as an element of its strategy to transform and modernize its networking infrastructure to support air, land and cyber operations. Our solutions and services are provided to these bases under Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Agreements issued by the Air Force to fund its Enterprise IT-as-a-Service (EITaaS) program. The program aims to use commercial networking services to deliver enhanced speed, security and capabilities and an efficient and improved user experience, including near-ubiquitous wireless connectivity across the bases.

“We think it is vital to test commercially provided services like 5G and software-based networking-as-a-service capabilities as we explore ways to help us innovate and improve our global air, space and cyber readiness,” said Col. Justin K. Collins, Deputy, Enterprise IT & Cyber Infrastructure Division, U.S. Air Force. “We expect 5G service will help us improve the user experience and support a broad array of use cases that can enhance mission effectiveness.”

In addition to 5G services, we are providing capabilities such as a Base Area Network, Wide Area Network, telephony, internet access and highly secure interoperability with legacy systems at the three bases. Our 5G and networking-as-a-service capabilities can support other advanced technology capabilities such as IoT, augmented and virtual reality, robotics, drones, and network edge storage and compute.

The Air Force is benefitting from our considerable investments in our networks and innovative technologies. Over the past 5 years (2015-2019), we invested more than $135 billion in our wireless and wireline networks, including capital investments and acquisition of wireless spectrum and operations.

We completed 5G system design across all three bases and expect to complete delivery of AT&T 5G service to them by the end of 2021.