I’ve been a firstnet customer since it was launched in California. It has been very good for me. I was on the Glass last year and the only one on my engine that had consistent service. Similarly on the Silverado in SoCal. My crew had iPhones and androids on the Dixie west and the coverage on firstnet worked better than the 1 ATT phone and the 2 other Verizon phones. All used my phone for a hotspot for all 3 phones at the same time with no issues. Coverage has improved consistently over the years and continues. Verizon has had better coverage in remote areas in years past, but I believe that is diminishing.
Important side note, if you have a personal firstnet account and you go on an deployment, you need to contact firstnet and let them know what incident you’re assigned so they can add your number to the fire’s area network. Agency phones don’t have to do this step. It’s just calling 611 when in route or once you get your deployment papers.
The worst experience ever! I had first net for over a year and a half. The worst customer service! My bill was never the same it would go up and down every month. I would have to call to get it fixed every month. When you call it’s a different number then the regular AT&T .The cell service was worse then ATT. The only positive thing was at large sporting events or concerts you would get priority service. I switched back to AT&T and just get the first responder discount. Maybe it’s changed but this was when AT&T took over the contract from Verizon a few years ago.
Just to clarify from current customers, you don’t deal with ATT as a firstnet user? The sales person conveyed to me that nothing changes for the end user. You log into your ATT account and everything is done via ATT. Not that that is any big benefit as ATT customer service sucks, but whateva…I’m more interested in still using the ATT website for my account.
The benefit monetarily is unlimited data at $55 w/hotspot, $45 unlimited but no hotspot.
Just using the ATT first responder discount, it look like $20 more than the above for the same plan, which is 25% off the off the street plans.
tumbleweed- It is still run by ATT, but there is a different site to log into. https://www.firstnet.com/
I wasn’t aware that Verizon had Firstnet. I thought ATT was Firstnet and Verizon launched their own first responder platform shortly after… I’ve been on Firstnet since the end of 2018 and it’s been really good for the most part. I would say that their customer service is better than the regular ATT.
It is ATT and not Verizon. ATT eventually came back to wireless after the Government required them to divest due to the “monopoly” clause in the laws. ATT became PacBell in California then Cingular. Once the ATT conversion from cingular took place, ATT and one other European company bid on the federal governments request for a nationwide emergency services network be deployed. Verizon chose not to bid… lots of reasons. Firstnet is ATT but a completely different organization under the ATT umbrella. It has a directive from the FCC to provide 95-99% coverage with in a certain time frame and a comprehensive support network for emergency services.
Is it a private company or governmental (involved)?
A separate division of ATT. It’s a government contract/ joint venture. It gives them access to eminent domain to place their towers and infrastructure to achieve the governmental coverage requirements. I don’t believe they have had to utilize that option yet.
Trying to understand the main differences (besides plan rates)
ATT First Net vs Virizon Frontline
They both seem to offer discounts for first responders along with Priority voice and data
What else am I missing ?
During times of high volume “cell phone traffic” (I.e. large wildfires, earthquakes, sporting events, etc…), AT&T FirstNet puts you in the front of the line to use your phone; it prioritizes your phone before other customers. I’ve had it for 2 years & it’s works REALLY well. Look at it like a 4 lane highway; FirstNet users are always in the Carpool lane. I get charged around $50/month & that includes unlimited text/talk & hot spot. The only thing is that the cell tower MUST have FirstNet technology. AT&T told me that the Western states are priority for the technology, with California as the priority due to wildfires. I know that Northern California has very few gaps in cell tower FirstNet service (including rural AT&T towers). I go out of County A LOT and service has been great. I hope this helps.
So First Net and Frontline both offer priority calls, text and data . Anything else …. They seem pretty similar so far
For only being out for a few years, that looks impressive. Remember, it’s not 100% coverage, as no cell phone company has 100% cell coverage. Just trying to help out with my experience. Cheers & Merry Christmas to all 1st Responders. Stay safe.
It may be impressive for a start , but why is everyone so quick to jump over to First net when Verizon frontline still has better coverage ? I think it’s because Firstnet has better marketing strategies.
Also remember some of those locations on rural norcal have zero cell service regardless of carrier, because there’s maybe one or zero humans per square mile. Those white areas of no coverage are my vacation spots, because I know the world can’t find me there. 
Two unspoken (so far here) benefits of FirstNet over Verizon:
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700Mhz bandwidth (band 14 in cell speak) which allows for better building penetration and distance/durability of RF signal vs the normal bands. It can also become exclusively firstnet-only when needed (disasters, stadium coverage, etc) so you have guarunteed bandwidth outside the “civilian” users. In some places band14 is nearly exclusive to first net. I used this personally to score Star Wars Disneyland passes at the 8am “raffle” where thousands of other people all in a 10,000sqft area were competing for RF bandwidth. Scored passes two days in a row without flinching.
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First Net Band 14 will be the very first thing that lights up via ATT Cows and Colts (mobile cell towers). Dixie Fire had multiple ATT and Verizon mobile setups. ATT was FirstNet first/only, and Verizon was “everyone” so you shared bandwidth with civilians and media and the facebook video streamers who check on everyone’s houses.
I was in Quincy in middle of Dixie working on comms and had solid First Net in the entire valley, from one end of town (sheriff dispatch) to the EOC past the airport, before they put a FirstNet COLT at the EOC incase the fixed infrastructure failed. The Verizon tech mentioned they had one tower for the entire area and he said (can’t remember exact number) all 1600 (6000?) available “channels” on the tower that can process text, voice, data were continuously full except for a small window around 2-5am. That’s what happens when an entire fire camp gets placed under the tower haha.
I’m not a big data user, all I really care about is the monthly cost (i.e. unlimited data doesn’t do anything for me). ATT is making me change my phone because I have an unlocked S8. An ATT S8 will work fine 
. If I get their swap I can get a new S21 but am stuck with them for 2 years to get it for free plus it becomes a locked phone .
I can get the cost for first net and the normal ATT first responder discount online, but I am unable to get Verizon plan cost w/discount. Anybody have the numbers.
Why pay high rates for any cell coverage. I switched to Pure Talk mid summer, pay $52 month unlimited text, talk and data. Plus I got great coverage everywhere.
FYI, they contract to use all the major carriers towers.
Regarding firstnet, they are imbedded with FEMA and State, so they are deployed as soon as the incidents are esculated to those agencies, sooner if requested by any agency. They are required by contract to have service up and running in 24hrs or less. They have numerous typical options to provide these services staged all around the country. They can drop portable towers (self contained power, cell with extendable antenna with a drone holding it up) via helicopters. ATT store employees don’t really know firstnet. You need to contact a firstnet area rep. for all the services they provide.
This might be something that a lot of responders might not know. I have an iPhone 12 that has both Verizon service and FirstNet. The newer iPhones have the capability to have multiple services on the same phone. The trick is to have a FirstNet SIM card in the phone, and then have your other carrier, in my case Verizon, assign a digital sim to the same phone. 2 separate phone numbers, 1 phone.
I’m on a Fed IMT and it worked well for me all summer long. When I was in areas that had a strong Verizon signal I forwarded the FirstNet number to the Verizon number, and then did the reverse if I was in an area that had a stronger ATT or FIrstNet signal. Not sure if other brands of phones have that capability.
Does that also equal two phone bills…?