FirstNet info

[E5911]

If this is the wrong place for this question. Kind of a general call. Who is using FirstNet? We got it at work along with a new cell site running Band 14
Looking for forums, etc to get info, tips, etc. I'm reading about major issues on the AT&T Firstnet site. Is it really that bad? The podcasts paint a rose story of a network always up with good data

I realize this is not radio Per se, however some of the guys here are Public Safety people so I figured I'd reach out.....

 

[stmills]

I’ve been using FirstNet for just over 2 years, prior to switching I was a Sprint customer- for me the results have been positive- coverage at my home is better than Sprint was, and usage at major events in an urban area that has had a FirstNet build out has been positive- when working some major events my coverage has been solid while my coworkers on other consumer based carriers has been spotty at best. Just like any Cell carrier results vary based on location.

 

[mmckenna]

I've been running on FirstNet for a while. We're using it at work for our PD.
The AT&T/FN guys can really sell the hell out of it. Like all things, you need to take it with a grain of salt.

One thing that is a constant is that people LOVE to complain about their cellular service. It's a God given right, nay, DUTY!

The benefits I've found:
Truly "unlimited" service. I have zero restrictions on calling, text or data usage. All that for $49/month. Better than what I had through plain old AT&T. I often tether my laptop to my phone and can go through a lot of data when working remotely. I'm actually doing it right now since the hotel WiFi seems to be intermittent.
The priority access is nice. I've been in environments were there's a lot of people all trying to use their phones. Never had an issue. That alone is worth it. To be fair, other carriers can provide that sort of service.

The drawbacks:
Get outside the city or off main highways, and AT&T kind of sucks in the coverage department. I drove across New Mexico last month and went -hours- without service. To be fair, I was not on the major highways. Verizon did have service through a some of that area.

The new Band 14 High Power User Equipment is a nice addition, but kind of expensive right now.

I wish FN had better coverage but it's not a huge deal for me. It does work well, and I'm happy with the benefits.

Keep in mind that AT&T is still building out the network. When FirstNet was first rolled out, they just added the FirstNet network ID to the existing AT&T network. As they add Band 14 to the sites, we should see things improve. Hardening of their power and backhaul continues and should improve things.

 

[spanky15805]

...Get outside the city or off main highways, and AT&T kind of sucks in the coverage department... Been times when I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

 

[wwhitby]

I know a fella who has First Net and loves it. He says that he gets much better coverage than he did with his non-First Net AT&T service.

Since I was eligible, I actually looked into getting First Net, but I'm grandfathered into such a sweet deal with T-Mobile that it would cost me significantly more a month to switch over. My other concern is that AT&T customer service generally sucks. I've had their cellular, landline and DSL services in the past. They all worked fine, but if you had a problem, customer service was absolutely abysmal. AT&T once changed the ports and addresses of their POP and SMTP servers without telling anyone or putting the information on their website. It took two weeks of phone calls before I got a tech who knew what the new DNS and ports were!

Also, even though my current cellphone does have Band 14, its not First Net certified, so I would have to get another device, and I really don't want to spend the money on a new cellphone. FWIW, I'm not a cell phone geek like I am a radio geek, so I don't have to have the latest and greatest $1000 phones.

I do know that First Net went down during Hurricane Ida, and they had some significant outages after the Nashville Bombing.

 

[mmckenna]

FWIW, I'm not a cell phone geek like I am a radio geek, so I don't have to have the latest and greatest $1000 phones.

I switched to a Sonim XP8, and I received it for $0.99 when I transitioned to FirstNet.

As for customer support, I think you'll find that all first tier support from just about all the carriers will be the same.

 

[E5911]

Thanks for the replies. I am a long time Verizon and Prior to that a Airtouch customer. It was the only service for coverage in the area of my worksite, I will wait and see about AT&T. My employer has it now and I am not sure how it will work out. Someone at another forum made reference to being connected to "the FirstNet core". what are they talking about?

 

[wwhitby]

I switched to a Sonim XP8, and I received it for $0.99 when I transitioned to FirstNet.

As for customer support, I think you'll find that all first tier support from just about all the carriers will be the same.

Wow! That's a great deal! The offers they had when I checked into FN weren't that good.

FWIW, I've had excellent experiences with T-Mobile every time I've needed to call customer support. Much, much better than my experiences with AT&T.

 

[mmckenna]

Someone at another forum made reference to being connected to "the FirstNet core". what are they talking about?

The "core" is just the system that controls the LTE network.

 

[mmckenna]

Wow! That's a great deal! The offers they had when I checked into FN weren't that good.

Yeah, and while I switched from an iPhone, and it was quite a cultural shock, it is a nice phone. I don't worry about dropping it, getting it wet, and no annoying Apple stuff. Plus, it's freakin' loud.

And, if you are not buying off state contracts, you're getting hosed. We're in the middle of negotiating a bunch of contracts, so I expect my $49/month will drop.

 

[MTS2000des]

Verizon mops the floor of AT&T's dismal coverage. No service is worth the price if it doesn't work where you are.

 

[Thunderknight]

If your agency provides a phone and you carry a personal phone, it's nice to have one on each carrier (e.g. one Verizon or TMO and one FirstNet), that way you have carrier redundancy and be able to take advantage of coverage differences.
There are plenty of areas on the fringes around here where one works and the other doesn't.

 

[mmckenna]

If your agency provides a phone and you carry a personal phone, it's nice to have one on each carrier (e.g. one Verizon or TMO and one FirstNet), that way you have carrier redundancy and be able to take advantage of coverage differences.
There are plenty of areas on the fringes around here where one works and the other doesn't.

Most of the non-consumer oriented equipment has dual SIM capability. Most of the Cradlepoint stuff does. My Sonim phone does.

 

[MTS2000des]

If your agency provides a phone and you carry a personal phone, it's nice to have one on each carrier (e.g. one Verizon or TMO and one FirstNet), that way you have carrier redundancy and be able to take advantage of coverage differences.
There are plenty of areas on the fringes around here where one works and the other doesn't.

yeah, my agency phone is FirstNet. It's a joke compared to my personal Verizon phone. Both are iPhones (11 on FN, 13 on VZ). Guess who ALWAYS has coverage and guess who doesn't? FirstNet always comes in last. And don't get me started on data speeds. Even dead center of an alpha, beta and gamma sector of a FN site less than 100 yards away and you'll be doing good to get 30-40MB down. Meanwhile, VZW gives consistently more down with lower latency, around 80-100MB down, and if you're on a UW site, you'll see gigabit and faster speeds.

 

[KK6ZTE]

Most of the non-consumer oriented equipment has dual SIM capability. Most of the Cradlepoint stuff does. My Sonim phone does.

Even your iPhone has dual sim (though one or both have to be esims). Ran VZW and AT&T at my previous employment since AT&T is so bad.

 

[mmckenna]

Even your iPhone has dual sim (though one or both have to be esims). Ran VZW and AT&T at my previous employment since AT&T is so bad.

AT&T isn't bad around here. But that's my local experience. I know it differs. But see my comment above about it being our God given duty to complain about cell phone coverage. Sort of like the Ford vs. Chevy guys.

The Sonim and Cradlepoint have dual SIM slots, so real SIM's. I know some of the newer stuff is coming with eSIM's.

 

[MTS2000des]

except that AT&Turd disables the second SIM slot on the XP8. So much for carrier aggregation.

 

[Motoballa]

I've been using it coming up on two years, love the priority service in congested areas, tested it against numerous other carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon and I was able to make calls and use data where those two weren't (or were but with long delay) due to how busy it was.

I also got the XP8 for .99 cents with a 2 year contract for 45 bucks a month unlimited everything, talk, text, data and hotspot. I also bought a dedicated hotspot that I can hand out on the go so when non-FirstNet users are out of coverage or have poor coverage they can utilize the hotspot to be able to make calls/text and use data where as they otherwise wouldn't be able to.

One really good instance I can vouch for is the World Scout Jamboree in West Virginia, with about 50,000 participants within reach of around 4 cell towers (1 equipped with FirstNet) we saw no effect on the service while regular users had more often then not an inability to make outgoing calls or use data. That was really cool to experience and see how the prioritization works really well.

There was one instance where we had a huge ice/snow storm in Texas which greatly impacted my use of FirstNet, rather than repeating myself I'll leave a link to the post here: NTTA | RadioReference.com Forums

Aside from that one instance, over all I would recommend switching if you're looking into it.

 

[wwhitby]

yeah, my agency phone is FirstNet. It's a joke compared to my personal Verizon phone. Both are iPhones (11 on FN, 13 on VZ). Guess who ALWAYS has coverage and guess who doesn't? FirstNet always comes in last. And don't get me started on data speeds. Even dead center of an alpha, beta and gamma sector of a FN site less than 100 yards away and you'll be doing good to get 30-40MB down. Meanwhile, VZW gives consistently more down with lower latency, around 80-100MB down, and if you're on a UW site, you'll see gigabit and faster speeds.

My son and I both volunteer at the same agency. His personal cellphone uses Verizon and I use T-Mobile. When we are out in rural areas, he has always had a signal while I didn't have any signal. IMHO, if you stay in urban or suburban areas, First Net would not be a bad choice. If you are in primarily rural areas, I'd go Verizon. FWIW, the agency where we volunteer is responsible for a mostly rural county, so they are 100% Verizon.

 

[jeepsandradios]

As many said it depends on location. If your area has good ATT coverage FirstNet will work good. Where I live my FirstNet phone has no coverage. My personal phone is Verizon and works. I know my brother's county went to First Net also and they have spotty to no coverage. The issue is the coverage. When they work they work well.