Case Study: AT&T achieves 30-year climate-risk mapping and stronger network resilience with Esri

AT&T Taps Advanced Analytics to Map Decades of Climate Risk

AT&T, the world’s largest telecom by market cap, faced mounting climate risk to its physical infrastructure after spending more than $800 million on storm repair and recovery between 2016 and 2018. To predict how climate change could affect its network over the next 30 years, AT&T worked with Argonne National Laboratory and used ESRI GIS/location-intelligence mapping tools to visualize flood and wind exposures for assets across Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.

Leveraging ESRI’s smart-mapping, AT&T integrated Argonne’s hyperlocal climate models (200‑meter resolution across more than 35 million grid cells) into its asset maps, producing granular forecasts (for example, up to 15 feet of inundation with ~95% confidence) and actionable guidance—moving towers short distances, elevating batteries, or reinforcing sites. ESRI-enabled maps were shared publicly, supported a resiliency challenge that funded five universities with $50,000 each, and helped AT&T prioritize investments to reduce future operational and financial exposure.

AT&T

Antoine Diffloth

Director of Data Insights in the Chief Data Office