All users of both AT&T and FirstNet get access to a much larger pool of wireless bandwidth, resulting in faster speeds for everyone involved, and a much lower cost to build out a network dedicated to first responders. In the event of crisis, FirstNet will get priority on the band 14 spectrum.

Dish is not a viable provider todau and didn't exist in 2016 when FirstNet went out to bid.

Verizon is unwilling to densify their suburban and rural networks to meet the coverage requirements, so they passed on bidding for FirstNet.

T-Mobile felt FirstNet was too big a lift when they didn't have clarity on the 600Mhz spectrum auction (which wrapped up in 2017) nor the rural coverage and suburban density they have today.

https://www.designworldonline.com/firstnet-bids-are-in-now-t...

I personally have seen much greater damage from other contractor's failures (Microsoft, Oracle, etc.) than AT&T or Verizon could cause. When you've suddenly lost email, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, the phone is as useless as the computer.

But the sad reality I've experienced is that a fiber seeking backhoe hundreds of miles away cripples half your network and Lumen insists there is nothing that can be done to prevent this. And everyone just goes along with this.