As U.S. wireless carriers spend billions of dollars deploying next-generation 5G networks, AT&T Inc. is taking unprecedented steps to protect its infrastructure from extreme weather and climate change.

In a first for the telecommunications industry, AT&T has begun working with the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory on a climate change resiliency project. The project combines Argonne's regional climate modeling data and mapping capabilities with data about AT&T's network assets, enabling the company to visualize the risk to its infrastructure 30 years into the future.

With the rise of sea levels, the increase in extreme weather and the heavy capital expenditures telecom operators plan to make in the coming years, experts say this kind of proactive thinking is necessary if communications companies are to protect both their infrastructure and their investments.

Big data

According to Charles Herget, assistant vice president of environmental sustainability for AT&T, the company began focusing on this issue in 2016, identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in regards to climate change. As part of that SWOT analysis, AT&T learned it had a trove of big data about weather and its network that could be used to mitigate risks to its operations.

"So that's 2016. Then you go to 2017 and you remember all of the severe weather-related impacts that we had," Herget said, referring to the three major hurricanes that year: Harvey, Irma and Maria. The storms — which ravaged areas in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — are among the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history.

According to data from AT&T, the company incurred costs totaling $626 million related to natural disasters in 2017. A year later, in 2018, the costs totaled $181 million.

"As a company, having the data from the SWOT analysis combined with the impact directly to our bottom line, you have to put those together and say we need to take bigger, bolder action," Herget said.

Taking action

The company partnered with Argonne to develop a tool that can visually overlay climate change probability data on top of AT&T's physical asset data, including the location of cell towers, copper lines, fiber cables, data centers and even retail locations.

While AT&T previously relied on historical data and flood plain maps, Herget said the tool allows the company to be more forward looking. Moreover, the spatial resolution of Argonne's data allows AT&T to study assets "really at an address level as opposed to a zip code level," he said.

As an example, Herget said AT&T can now look at an individual cell tower that probability shows will be in a flooded area in the future. The company can then determine whether it should lift that tower or create some other type of resilience to protect it from flooding.

"Maybe just as important though is the fact that we will be able to use this data as we put new assets into the ground … As we look at 5G build-outs, we can incorporate this data to make sure that we are being very, very smart about … where we put our resources," Herget said.

Citing data from Accenture, the U.S. wireless association CTIA has estimated that U.S. wireless companies will spend $275 billion over seven years to deploy 5G technology, including $93 billion on construction.

Climate-change risk

Nancy Meyer — director of business engagement at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, an environmental nonprofit organization — said that certain industries are seeing climate change as a big issue, such as telecom, oil and gas, and utilities.

"More and more, companies are starting to really feel some of the physical impacts of climate change," she said, pointing to the series of powerful storms the U.S. has seen in recent years.

"I think it's been a wake-up call for a lot of companies to really look at their plans around resiliency and climate change," Meyer said.

According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information, the number of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters totaled 28 between 1980 and 1989, 52 between 1990 and 1999, and 59 between 2000 and 2009. With much of 2019 still remaining, the number of billion-dollar extreme weather events as of April 9 has already reached 107 between 2010 and 2019. All figures are adjusted for time based on the Consumer Price Index.

Broader industry

Given the increase in storms and AT&T's announcement, Chris Coulter, CEO of the public opinion research consultancy GlobeScan, expects other firms in the telecom sector to follow AT&T in announcing projects aimed at mitigating the risk of climate change.

"I think the size of AT&T and the fact that the company has committed to it is a big deal. I think it will influence the broader industry," he said.

A Verizon Communications Inc. representative did not return a request for comment. In the company's 2018 disclosure form for CDP Worldwide — a U.K.-based group that collects and shares climate change data from companies and cities — Verizon said it does not use climate-related scenario analyses to inform its business strategy but anticipates doing so in the next two years.

"Verizon has a comprehensive business continuity planning strategy to prepare our business to respond to natural and man-made events around the globe that could adversely impact our business operations," the company said in its disclosure form.

As for AT&T, Herget said the initial project focused on four priority states within the southeastern U.S. AT&T ultimately plans to expand that focus and also make the climate data that powers the climate change analysis tool public so others — including municipalities, utilities and universities — can use it.