Current Events > Never thought I would be defending AT&T, but whew, these conspiracy theories

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/at-t-snags-fbi-business-from-verizon-92m-firstnet-contract

Under the new contract, the FBI will use FirstNet to communicate and connect nationwide both for day-to-day and emergency operations.
That includes all local offices. The FBI has 56 field offices or divisions, across major U.S. markets, and within those about 380 resident agencies located in smaller cities and towns. The agency plans to use FirstNet Ready devices like smartphones, air cards, and modems.
The FBI already had some users on FirstNet, Schwartz said, and FirstNet previously helped support the agency during certain special events where there was a critical emphasis on public safety.

AT&T didn't get a contract to do a forensic audit of voting machines. That isn't even the kind of thing AT&T does as a business. The contract they got was for FirstNet, which is a communications network the FBI will be using nationwide. They won said contract over Verizon. AT&T is essentially providing a communications network that is segregated from the public internet that would be used to allow different FBI offices to communicate with each other. Tons of government entities and private businesses alike use things like this with various service providers, whether it's AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Zayo, etc.

My job has this with two separate service providers for redundancy. My old job had the same thing, although with a much smaller footprint. My job before that resold services like this to multiple customers large and small.

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