What’s new: In North Carolina, we invested more than $3.2 billion in our network from 2021-2025 to build more infrastructure and power more opportunity.

Why it matters: Connectivity is the backbone of North Carolina’s innovation economy, shaping our daily life and supporting the safety and resilience of communities nationwide. By investing in communities across the country, we’re helping expand access, strengthen infrastructure, and unlock greater economic opportunity for Americans—fueling business growth, creating jobs, and helping more people participate in the modern economy.

“Reliable connectivity is essential for all North Carolinians to access digital services for education, jobs, health care, and government services,” said Nate Denny, N.C. Department of Information Technology Secretary and State Chief Information Officer. “As we build a stronger, more connected state, we value AT&T’s partnership and ongoing investment in infrastructure that supports economic growth, workforce development, and resilience for North Carolina’s communities.”

“AT&T is proud to continue investing in North Carolina’s communications infrastructure to help meet the evolving needs of communities across the state,” said Trey Rabon, President, AT&T North Carolina. “By advancing modern connectivity, we are helping support economic opportunity and expand access high-speed internet that enables North Carolina residents, businesses and institutions to prosper in today’s world.”

How we’re making it happen in North Carolina: Committed to expanding connectivity, our investment focuses on all facets of the network—including fiber, 5G and FirstNet,® Built with AT&T.

• Expanding access to fiber: To help meet the demands for reliable, high-speed connections today – and in the future – we’re investing in our fiber network. With more than 4.8 million fiber strand miles in North Carolina, AT&T Fiber^® is now available to more than 1.28 million customer locations in more than 125 communities.
  • With over 97 million fiber strand miles in 21 states, AT&T Fiber^® now passes nearly 32 million consumer and business locations.

• Building networks for the next century: To reach our goal and help our customers upgrade to faster, more reliable services, we’re actively investing in modern networks that will power us for the next century. We’re working to exit copper-based services in the majority of our wireline footprint by the end of 2029. Throughout this transition, no customer will lose access to voice or 911 services. We’re here to make the transition from copper to new technology like wireless and AT&T Phone-Advanced, a digital phone service that uses our reliable wireless network and any broadband connection as a backup, as easy as possible for our customers.
  • Today, AT&T Phone-Advanced is available throughout our footprint markets across 21 states, including North Carolina.
  • Unlocking the power of 5G: From rural communities to urban areas, our overall wireless voice and data network covers more than 99% of all Americans, including North Carolina. Our 5G network using low-band spectrum reaches more than 320 million people in more than 27,700 cities and towns in the U.S.
    • We’re ramping up performance in high traffic areas, like airports, stadiums and venues.
    • For less densely populated areas, we’re expanding our 5G network so people there can have access to reliable connectivity.
    • And we’re also working with AST SpaceMobile to offer a full suite of broadband connectivity: voice, data, and text in remote, off-grid locations. One day it may also support video services. 
    • We also launched AT&T Internet Air, our fixed wireless home internet service delivered over our 5G network, an all-in-one device that powers strong Wi-Fi coverage in your home.
  • Connectivity when it matters the most: As public safety’s partner, more first responders choose FirstNet to reliably communicate than any other network. The largest network for public safety with nearly 3M square miles of coverage, we are building a network with and for public safety—giving them the reliable, dedicated connectivity they need when and where they need it. We’re continuing to expand FirstNet with purpose-built FirstNet sites—based on direct public safety feedback and network considerations — focused on rural, tribal and remote areas of the country. We are also launching the first mission-critical push-to-talk platform (PTT), FirstNet Fusion, that can connect teams across virtually any radio system or wireless carrier. A secure, one-stop shop for emergency response coordination, Fusion will eliminate complexities around group communication and bring together critical communications capabilities.
    • In North Carolina, we’re connecting public safety agencies and organizations in more than 760 localities across the state.
    • We’ve rolled out Band 14 on more than 2,100 sites across North Carolina to provide public safety with truly dedicated coverage and capacity.

And we’re not just investing in our network; we’re also investing in our communities.

AT&T has committed $5 billion by 2030 to narrow the digital divide and help 25 million people get and stay connected to affordable, high-speed internet access and digital resources.

To keep up with all the latest updates from AT&T North Carolina. follow us on X @ATTPublicPolicy and on LinkedIn.*