AT&T enterprise customers will have the opportunity to leverage deployable cell-tower coverage from a Compact Rapid Deployable (CRD) unit manufactured by Rescue 42, according to Rescue 42 founder and CEO Tim O’Connell.

“It’s identical to the CRD for FirstNet, except there is a different frequency on the radio,” O’Connell said during an interview with Urgent Communications. “It looks identical to a FirstNet [CRD], but instead of saying ‘FirstNet’ on the door, it just has the AT&T blue logo.”

While the FirstNet CRD supports communications operating on the 700 Band 14 spectrum licensed to the FirstNet Authority, the CRD for AT&T Enterprise will support communications operating on commercial AT&T Band 2 spectrum, according to O’Connell. The propagation differences associated with the commercial frequency means the enterprise unit’s range likely will be less than the FirstNet CRD, but the coverage footprint still will be “up to 10 square miles” and will support as many as 1,000 simultaneous users, depending on backhaul capacity, he said.

Many public-safety officials have credited the FirstNet CRD for changing the way deployable assets are used during emergency responses, because it allows a cell site to be placed in locations that a traditional SatCOLT cannot reach, and it can be deployed in minutes with satellite backhaul, even by minimally trained personnel. It also has been used to ensure continuity of operations to critical infrastructure—like 911 centers—by providing a backup connectivity pipe when primary terrestrial services are unavailable.

As with FirstNet CRDs, the CRD for AT&T Enterprise—equipped with both Viasat GEO and Starlink LEO backhaul options—can be owned by an end-user organization, and AT&T already has received inquiries about the deployable asset, O’Connell said.

“They’re getting a lot of interest from railroads and industrial plants that want to have [communications] redundancy or that don’t have good coverage,” O’Connell said, noting that construction also is a likely sector to use the new product.

“There’s just a whole bunch of the world that is not FirstNet [eligible] that still needs deployables.”

IWCE 2025 attendees can learn more about the AT&T CRD for Enterprise and other deployable products by visiting Rescue 42 personnel in Booth #947 during exhibit-hall hours on March 19-20 in the Las Vegas Convention Center.