AT&T Creates New Public Sector Sales Arm

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AT&T has created a new government business arm and named Kay Kapoor to head it.

That follows AT&T's selection last week to build and maintain the FirstNet interoperable broadband public safety network under a public-private partnership funded with FCC spectrum auction proceeds and created out of the first responder communications failures on 9/11.

The government is ponying up $6.5 billion, while AT&T said it will invest $40 billion, as well as providing access to its $180 billion network. For its part, AT&T gets access to the 20 MHz of spectrum being used for the network during non-emergency periods.

Kapoor headed up the AT&T team that secured that 25-year FirstNet government contract.

AT&T's public sector business—federal, state and local—totaled almost $15 billion in 2016. The new Global Public Sector arm now combines those teams under Kapoor, who will be president.

Kapoor has been with AT&T for four years.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.