The FAA Hands AT&T a Multibillion-Dollar Contract to Rebuild Its Air Traffic Network

On August 13, 2026, the FAA gave AT&T a $74.3 million initial task order that puts the carrier in line for a multibillion-dollar, 15-year contract to rebuild the telecommunications backbone linking the country’s air traffic control system.

A New Lead Contractor Mid-Program

The task order falls under FAA Enterprise Network Services, or FENS, the program connecting more than 4,600 FAA facilities nationwide. AT&T becomes lead contractor and program manager, while Verizon, the incumbent since 2023, shifts into a supporting role and keeps running core network functions, Washington Technology reported.

“Under the initial contract, AT&T will begin program management and engineering activities, network design, transition planning from legacy network services, and other technical, testing, and implementation efforts,” the FAA said, according to the outlet.

The agency said a fresh competition for the FENS contract would take at least 22 months, too slow to hit the December 2028 deadline it has set for the wider air traffic control overhaul the network supports, Avweb reported.

AT&T said it was “proud to help the FAA modernize and transform the systems that keep air travel running,” pointing to its nationwide fiber network and experience running mission-critical infrastructure.

The Bigger Project This Feeds

FENS is the telecommunications piece of a larger effort the FAA calls the Brand New Air Traffic Control System, or BNATCS: a rebuild of the radar, radios, automation software, and facilities behind how air traffic control works, targeted for the end of 2028, according to the agency’s own fact sheet.

Congress put up a $12.5 billion down payment for BNATCS through last year’s budget bill, and the FAA says it needs roughly $20 billion more to finish the program. The agency has already replaced more than a third of its old copper wiring with fiber.

Telecommunications is one of the FAA’s stated top priorities inside BNATCS, since it is the layer that ties everything else, radars, control towers, and the automation tools controllers use, back to a single network.

The FAA says equipment failures are already costing time in the air: flight-delay minutes tied to equipment issues in 2025 ran about 300 percent above the 2010-2024 average. AeroCorner has covered the related controller staffing crunch that compounds those delays.

It follows other recent FAA modernization moves, including July’s radio altimeter retrofit rule, as the agency works through a broader backlog of aging infrastructure.