AT&T’s 5G network is kicking into gear with coverage reaching a potential 80 million people spanning about 80 cities, CFO John Stephens said at an investor conference.

AT&T remains on track to deploy “nationwide” 5G coverage before July with 200 million people covered, he said. After making its 5G network exclusively available to business customers for more than a year, the operator opened up access to consumers in December 2019.

Now it’s shifting into selling mode as it waits for more 5G-capable devices to hit the market. “5G is going to be a very big deal for us,” Stephens said, describing the company’s approach as more “rational” than that of its competitors. 

“We have 160 megahertz of what we'll call sub-6 or low- and medium-band spectrum that is either in service or being put in service across the country. This is giving us great coverage. This is giving us great speeds, giving us great quality,” he said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. 

That spectrum position, partly riding on the strength of its nationwide FirstNet network for first responders, has given AT&T the opportunity to “get very far ahead of the 5G upgrade” and accomplish nationwide availability before the end of this year’s second quarter, Stephens explained. 

“Our competitors don't have that spectrum in that sub-6 area in service today. T-Mobile and Sprint, when they get together, when they do close, will have the spectrum, but it's a long way from being put to use,” he added. 

“We'll have ours in service and so that gives us a great advantage,” Stephens said. “We believe we're going to have the best, deepest coverage on the 5G perspective than any of our competitors, specifically because we're using this sub-6 spectrum in combination with a very healthy collection of millimeter-wave [spectrum].”

There’s also a growing push-and-pull dynamic wherein AT&T’s sales professionals are encouraging business customers to experiment with new use cases while businesses are pulling on AT&T to expand and deliver new capabilities, he said. “Because of that, we have a very good opportunity to learn and develop. And that will lead us in then to the consumer applications that we will develop throughout this year and into the future.”

Stephens also reiterated AT&T’s three-year plan to cut costs, grow revenue on a compound annual basis of 1% to 2%, including wireless revenue growth of at least 2% through 2022. Much of that will be driven by AT&T’s 5G and FirstNet network coverage and shifting more customers to higher-cost plans, he claimed. 

His appearance at an investor conference came one week after John Stankey, AT&T’s president and COO, outlined “10 broad initiatives” under consideration that it believes will generate tens of billions of dollars in savings through 2022. Some of those cuts will directly impact AT&T’s employees as it looks to slash $1.5 billion in labor-related costs this year.

The company shed 20,420 jobs last year, representing a 7.6% year-over-year decline of its workforce, and ended 2019 with 247,800 employees.

Stephens didn’t address the job cuts that are the horizon, but noted that other efforts such as its years-long project to virtualize its core network functions with SDN are also delivering on that goal. “I'm confident we can execute on our cost initiatives,” Stephens said.