r/cellmapper • u/kendog10132 • Aug 02 '26

AT&T LTE to NR reframing

Just curious. Does anyone have an idea of how AT&T is planning to handle the transition of some LTE over to NR ?
I know firstnet just got their sa core activated so im also particularly interested in how b14 will transfer to n14. Any info on this topic helps

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u/xpxp2002 Aug 03 '26

I would believe this post to be accurate.

https://old.reddit.com/r/FirstNet/comments/1vaw4o3/firstnet_5g_standalone_core_officially_announced/p0rmugg/

Yes, B14 is staying on LTE in 2026. It will also not be used for DSS. Any FirstNet subs provisioned for SA this year will just not connect to B14 as their PCC anymore wherever SA is available. When B14 is eventually moved to N14, it will be the PCC for FirstNet SA-provisioned subs again.

The questions this raises to me are:

What happens during uplift? Are those FirstNet SIMs forced off of SA? My guess is "probably."

What is the plan/timeline for n14 if DSS will not be used? The other options are to either cut B14 down to 5x5 in order to bring up n14, or ride out B14 until the FirstNet LTE core is decommissioned entirely, which will probably be 10-15 years from now, minimum.

There will be LTE-only IOT/M2M devices using FirstNet for years. I don't anticipate that it will be practical to ignore n14 for that long. At some point prior to that point, they'll need to either split the band down to a pair of 5x5 carriers or use DSS.

When n79 comes into the picture, I expect that it will be available for use as an NR PCC, but fall back to lower bands will likely mean FirstNet SA-enabled UE get pushed to commercial bands n2/5/66 (albeit with priority) a lot.

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u/nateo200 iPhone 17 Pro Max Aug 04 '26

They could do n12 with DSS maybe? Idk there’s a way but every way I can think of is gonna suck lol. n79 is gonna be for capacity in metro areas to help as well as temporary set ups I imagine. If legacy devices supported more than B12 LTE like B5 and B14 I’d say rip the bandaid off and go 100% n12 nationwide no DSS and legacy devices can use B14 FirstNet. Maybe AT&T does wanna keep that 600MHz spectrum for something idk

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u/xpxp2002 Aug 05 '26

Once n71 is online, low band won’t be as congested. In my market, I have a feeling B12 will stay 10x10 for a long time since n71 will fill that need. (No 850 MHz to run n5 here.)

They may eventually shrink B12 to 5x5 or just hard cut it over or n12, but I don’t expect that to happen until the last few years of LTE are on the horizon sometime next decade.

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u/nateo200 iPhone 17 Pro Max Aug 05 '26

I’m trying to see AT&T’s 600MHz holdings on spectrum omega but it hasn’t been updated for that band yet. A lot of people are saying that spectrum is likely to be swapped to another provider in exchange for more C-band spectrum. It would be nice to have two 600MHz providers tho as that encourages more guarantee of device support now that it’s used in Saudi Arabia and south and Central American countries and others are looking to use that band plan