Displaying items by tag: AT&T

AT&T 5G is now live for consumers in 10 markets. Millions of consumers and businesses across Birmingham, Ala., Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Providence, R.I., Rochester, N.Y., San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, Calif. market areas can now access AT&T’s 5G network using the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ 5G.

“We believe 5G technology will be game-changing, and we continue to help drive this next wave of innovation,” said Scott Mair, President of AT&T Technology Operations. “We were the first in the U.S. to offer commercial mobile 5G, and this is the next step as we build to nationwide service in the first half of 2020.”

AT&T 5G availability will continue to rapidly expand - including service in Boston, Bridgeport, Conn., Buffalo, N.Y., Las Vegas, Louisville, Ky., New York City, and other markets soon – as they work toward offering nationwide coverage in the first half of 2020.

5G initially offers broad coverage areas for both consumers and businesses over low-band 5G. This service is ideal for mobile customers who need performance while on the go.

5G+ offers extra speed and capacity over high-band 5G to serve high-traffic areas and places like arenas, campuses and more. It is currently available for businesses and collaborators who are exploring new ways to unlock the significant performance capabilities of 5G+. Service is now offered in parts of 23 cities, including recent entries into parts of King of Prussia and West Hollywood.

Additionally, customers who travel outside our available 5G coverage area with a compatible 5G device will have confidence in knowing they will still be able to connect to the nation’s best and also the fastest network on AT&T 5G Evolution and LTE. In fact, LTE customers nationwide are already benefitting from the upgrades we’ve made to our network while preparing it for 5G. We offer 5G Evolution (areas with optimized LTE technologies) in over 550 markets today and it offers customers speeds up to twice as fast as LTE.

Steve Papa, CEO, Parallel Wireless said: “AT&T has today become the final major US carrier to launch 5G services for consumers, creating a hotbed of competition in the marketplace. AT&T has always been a leader when it comes to the use of new and innovative network technologies. For the last six years it has been focused on scaling out its virtualization efforts through VNF and SDN, as it moves towards a cloud native network infrastructure. This approach will now enable it to quickly and cost-effectively deploy and scale 5G as demand for the technology grows.

“The carrier that will emerge as the leader in 5G will be the one that successfully juggles the benefits of virtualization and open computing. The open computing model is disrupting the telecoms space as carriers of all sizes move away from hardware towards software-centric networks. This approach means networks can support technology from multiple vendors and deliver coverage at a much lower cost. This will be particularly important as carriers look to introduce best in-class solutions to deploy 5G across multiple spectrum bands, such as the mmWave and the sub-6 GHz.

T-Mobile announced that it became the first to launch 5G wireless service across the United States, although it will be slower than some might expect for the new generation of connectivity. The number three US carrier said its 5G network covers 200 million people and "goes through walls," outperforming the limited 5G deployment of larger rivals Verizon and AT&T earlier this year. While the network is supposedly live today, no one is going to be using it until later this week: the first two phones to support it go on sale this Friday.

"T-Mobile have made very bold promises that can only come to fruition with the vast wireless spectrum holdings, the combined T-Mobile and Sprint will have. State attorneys general who oppose the merger on antitrust grounds are concerned about its potential impact on competition and wireless service prices. However, the promises T-Mobile made today make it difficult for any regulator to continue contesting the merger.

“T-Mobile is promising unprecedented moves for any wireless carrier, which begs the question: Can the New T-Mobile pull this off? The answer is yes. We’ve said all along that the New T-Mobile will result in one of the first and most comprehensive 5G networks in the world given the spectrum assets of both T-Mobile and Sprint. Unlike 4G, emerging 5G networks require carriers to have access to several different frequency bands, in order to meet all 5G’s promises around ultra-high-speed data transmission and latency. T-Mobile has a large swathe of 600 MHz spectrum and will have access to Sprint’s highly coveted 2.5 GHz spectrum, provided the merger closes.

“Among the specific promises made by T-Mobile today, is a 10-year commitment for free 5G access for first responders at every public and non-profit agency, such as police, fire and emergency medical services (EMS). The company also declared that the New T-Mobile will close the ‘homework gap', with a $10bn commitment to offer free online access and hardware to some 10 million homes with children that are without service.

“On the pricing front, the New T-Mobile threw a bombshell at competitors by promising a prepaid service plan at $15 per month for 2GB of high-speed data, 4G or 5G, and 5GB of high-speed data at $25 per month. That heavily undercuts all prepaid service plans, where competition for budget-constrained customers is at its greatest.

“T-Mobile executing on all of these promises will heavily impact AT&T and Verizon, both competitively and in terms of corporate goodwill. These carriers cannot sit back without a response.”

MEF has announced the 15 MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstration teams selected to participate in the sixth annual MEF 3.0 PoC Showcase at MEF19, held 18-22 November 2019 at the JW Marriott LA LIVE in Los Angeles, California.

The Showcase will bring together 46 of the world’s leading service and technology providers to present groundbreaking demonstrations of SD-WAN, inter-provider and intra-provider service automation with LSO APIs, AI/ML, security, intent-based networking, Blockchain, Carrier Ethernet, satellite services, 5G, network slicing, IoT, private cloud, service assurance, and more.

“This has been an extraordinary year of innovation as industry players strive toward a common goal of accelerating adoption of dynamic and assured services across automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks,” said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF.

He continued, “We look forward to the PoC teams spotlighting the huge progress being made in MEF 3.0 service and technology development and implementation.” 

“It has been a pleasure working directly with top service and technology experts from around world who are participating in the MEF 3.0 PoC Showcase,” said Daniel Bar-Lev, Director, Office of the CTO, MEF.

“The PoCs are always a highlight for our annual event, and I’m extremely excited about what we have in store for MEF19. This year’s Showcase will provide invaluable insight that enterprises, service providers, and technology companies need to successfully navigate on their digital transformation journey.”

The 2019 MEF 3.0 PoC Showcase participants and their demonstration themes include:

Colt Technology Services, PCCW Global, Sparkle, Tata Communications, Accedian Amartus, and Clear Blockchain Technologies: Standardization of Blockchain Billing and Settlement Utilizing MEF 3.0 Framework

PCCW Global, DCConnect Global, and R3: Automated Inter-Carrier Credit Ratings Using Blockchain

NTT Communications, ADVA, NEC/Netcracker, Silver Peak, Spirent Communications, and Versa Networks: Orchestrated Virtualized Multivendor SD-WAN Services

Comcast Business, Cox Business, Ciena, and Nokia Networks: MEF SOAM for High Value Multi-Operator Carrier Ethernet Services

Spectrum Enterprise, Equinix, Nefeli Networks, Nokia Networks, and Vitria: Intelligent, Intent-Based Network Scaling Using IoT Services

AT&T, Fortinet, and Nokia Networks: Slicing the Edge

CMC Networks, Intelsat, Nokia/Nuage Networks, Infovista, Cloudify, and Kontron: SD-WAN over Satellite Access

BT, ADVA, and Infovista with radio support from Accelleran, Attocore, and Radisys: Wholesale Network Slicing for 5G Access

Equinix, Unitas Global, and Ciena: AI-Driven Federated Domain Operations for Ultra Resilient Services

Tata Communications Transformation Services (TCTS), Fortinet, and Spirent Communications: Security Assurance in SD-WAN Application Flows (“The Protectors”)

CenturyLink, Telia Carrier, and Infinera: AI/ML and Policy Driven Networks for the LSO-Based Architecture

CenturyLink, Spirent Communications, and Versa Networks: SD-WAN Services and API Automated Certification

Amdocs and Cisco: Private Enterprise Networks

TELUS, Ekinops, and Inmanta: Multi-Domain Orchestration of MPLS, SD-WAN and Cloud Services

NTT Communications, NTT Labs, and Okinawa Open Laboratory: 5G xHaul Sharing as Slices with LSO Orchestration

MEF will be hosting a special MEF 3.0 PoC Awards Ceremony at 6:40pm – 7:00pm on Wednesday, 20 November, in the MEF19 Networking Hall. These awards will recognize leadership and innovation across multiple categories.

US telecommunications behemoth AT&T has been roundly criticized by its rival operators in the United States who have described its 5G marketing as ‘overhyped’ and ‘misleading’.

US operator Verizon has urged those within the industry to resist the temptation to overhype and subsequently under-deliver on the promise of next-generation technology. In a statement released by Verizon, it’s CTO, Kyle Malady pointed out that whilst new technologies including AI, virtual reality and Internet of Things would all be underpinned by 5G, he stressed the importance of being realistic in terms of what operators can actually deliver in relation to the revolutionary technology.

AT&T launched a mobile 5G service towards the end of 2018, and claimed that it was offering the service to select businesses and consumers in 12 US cities via a mobile hotspot device provided by Netgear. The network operator has adopted an ambitious approach to 5G and was also pushing its 5G Evolution program which promised users speeds faster than your standard LTE.

In addition to this, it was also disclosed in a previous statement by AT&T that Android devices from the operator will display a 5G E logo pop-up on the home screen which would indicate they have connected to AT&T’s 5G evolution experience.

However, critics have claimed that the service provided by AT&T should not be considered as a 5G network offering. Verizon’s CTO said, “If network providers, equipment manufacturers, handset makers, app developers and others in the wireless ecosystem engage in behaviour designed to purposefully confuse consumers, public officials and the investment community about what 5G really is, we risk alienating the very people we want most to join in developing and harnessing this exciting new technology.”

Although not mentioned by name, Verizon’s comments appear to be directed at its main rival AT&T.

Verizon is still preparing for its mobile 5G launch after deploying a fixed wireless access service in October 2018.

In another apparent swipe at AT&T’s Android device move, Malady also cautioned on the industry to only commit to labelling something 5G if new device hardware is connecting the network using new radio technology to deliver new capabilities.

The CTO added, “Verizon is making this commitment today: we won’t take an old phone and just change the software to turn the 4 in the status bar into a 5.”

T-Mobile
Also turning up the heat was T-Mobile US, which didn’t pass up the opportunity to seemingly mock AT&T on Twitter, while making the same point as Verizon. “Didn’t realise it was this easy, brb updating,” the operator said on its official Twitter account, with the message accompanied by a video of someone taping a 9G sticker on a smartphone.

AT&T and Nokia are teaming up to provide virtually seamless Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity around the world. The companies are using Nokia’s Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) to offer AT&T’s enterprise customers the benefits of Nokia’s global IoT ecosystem. These include core network, dedicated IoT operations, billing, security, data analytics, and more.

AT&T and Nokia will develop, test and launch the next generation of IoT services. They’ll cover a wide range of industries including transportation, health, manufacturing, retail, agriculture, utilities, consumer electronics and smart cities.

Commercial deployment starts later this year. WING’s core network assets are expected to be available in more than 20 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, South America, and the Middle East by the first quarter of 2020. The collaboration will help set the stage for the evolution to global 5G.

Together the companies can help enterprise customers:

• Bring more capabilities to more places with increased performance and flexibility, lower latency, and enhanced platform capabilities.
• Address specific business requirements through capabilities like 5G network slicing that allows a single network to be partitioned into multiple networks.
• Meet local regulatory requirements for IoT devices.

“Our work with Nokia WING will help clear away the complexity of large-scale IoT adoption so that our customers can unlock the potential of IoT worldwide,” said Chris Penrose, President, Internet of Things Solutions, AT&T. “Boosted by Nokia’s globally deployed ‘one-stop shop’ network technology, we can be more nimble and responsive to our customers’ needs.”

“This collaboration proves our commitment to the global IoT market, providing seamless connectivity across geographical borders and technologies,” said Sanjay Goel, President of Global Services at Nokia. “With AT&T’s leading position in IoT and proven experience meeting real customer needs, we have a winning combination to bolster our global IoT capabilities.”

AT&T offers global IoT solutions through a combination of owned and third party-provided capabilities that enable superior network performance in more than 200 countries and territories. Connected devices are deployed and controlled easily and quickly in multiple countries using a single, global SIM.

AT&T’s cloud-based Multi-Network Connect platform will simplify connectivity and platform capabilities for AT&T’s use of Nokia WING. Multi-Network Connect lets businesses manage IoT devices across multiple cellular and satellite networks, operators and regions through a single portal.

Nokia WING offers a fully integrated, global managed service for IoT connectivity enablement for mobile network operators, providing innovative features, optimizing investments and reducing time to market. Working with WING, AT&T will speed the delivery of IoT services on a global scale and drive emerging IoT applications.

The US Territory of Puerto Rico was recently hit by the strongest storm in almost 90 years. Knocking out the island’s electricity grid, 90 percent of cell phone sites stopped working, according to the US Federal Communications Commission. The recent string of monster storms in North America has drawn attention to the importance of critical communications and promoting public safety.

In the space of two months (August and September 2017), the southern United States and Caribbean region were slammed by three mega storms: Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and the most recent Hurricane Maria. Harvey caused at least 75 confirmed deaths; 1 in Guyana, and 74 in the US. As of September 27, Irma caused at least 124 deaths; while as of October 1 Maria caused at least 68 deaths.

Still recovering from Irma two weeks prior, approximately 80,000 people in Puerto Rico were left without power after Maria hit. Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) had struggled with increasing debt, reaching $9 billion even before the hurricanes, prompting them to file for bankruptcy. The island’s aging infrastructure left it vulnerable to damage from the storms. Consequently, mobile coverage was cut off.

When Maria finally subsided, in Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, cars were reportedly pulling up on the side of roads with occupants emerging holding their cell phones up in the air in search of network coverage. For miles, cell phones displayed a frustrating “No Service” message. This is in stark contrast to the US states of Texas and Florida that had cell service restored almost completely in storm-affected areas a week after Harvey and Irma hit.

The aftermath of the storms has drawn fresh attention to the importance of critical communications. Following the storms, the United States Federal Communications Commission urged Apple to activate the FM (frequency modulation) chips that are in iPhones to promote public safety.

Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released a statement applauding those companies that have “done the right thing” by activating FM chips in their phones in light of natural disasters hammering the country. “In recent years, I have repeatedly called on the wireless industry to activate the FM chips that are already installed in almost all smartphones in the United States,” said Mr. Pai.

He highlighted the importance of FM chips during natural disasters. When wireless networks go down during a disaster, smartphones with activated FM chips can allow people to get vital access to important information without an internet connection. “Apple is the one major phone manufacturer that has resisted doing so,” said Mr. Pai. “But I hope the company will reconsider its position, given the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.”

According to the FCC, 89.3 percent of cell sites were out of service after Maria. All counties in Puerto Rico, except San Juan, had greater than 75 percent of their cell sites out of service. 29 out of the 78 counties in Puerto Rico had 100 percent of their cell sites out of service. On the US Virgin Islands, 69.8 percent of cell sites were out of service.

Since there were widespread power outages in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, the FCC received reports that large percentages of consumers were left without either cable services or wireline service (one company reported that 100 percent of its consumers were left out of service due to lack of commercial power).

In one of the few places that had connectivity on Puerto Rico, the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino, tourists reportedly overwhelmed the lobby to use the working cell service and Wi-Fi to connect with the outside world. With a cell phone penetration rate of nearly 100 percent, according to government data, Puerto Ricans have been heavily impacted by the lack of network services on the island.

Confidence in connectivity

Puerto Rico has five main mobile operators: AT&T, T-Mobile, Claro, Sprint and Open Mobile. Connectivity provided by operators is the backbone of relief efforts today. AT&T and Sprint both dispatched teams to restore coverage to the island. The companies also waived certain fees for customers to establish a way for people to contact their families and friends.

The electric grid fallout presented one of the biggest challenges to restoring connectivity to the island. “Power is essential to restoring wireless and wireline communications. Given the breadth of power outages across the islands, we’re deploying portable generators as quickly as allowed,” AT&T said.

Social media giant Facebook also pledged support for Puerto Rico. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced $1.5 million in aid to organizations assisting in the island’s recovery from Maria, together with direct assistance from Facebook’s connectivity team in an effort to get people back online. The company also said it would donate Facebook ad space to share critical information with Puerto Rican users.

Facebook’s connectivity team previously came under the spotlight for ambitious technology initiatives like the Aquila drone, a high-altitude solar-powered aircraft designed to connect remote areas to the internet. Facebook is pushing forward with the Aquila program's progress to help bring the world closer together through connectivity.

“Communication is critical during a disaster,” Zuckerberg said in a post after Hurricane Maria. “With 90 percent of cell towers on the island [Puerto Rico] out of service, people can't get in touch with their loved ones -- and it's harder for rescue workers to coordinate relief efforts.”

Recovery efforts have suffered in Puerto Rico as a result of its cell network outage. Utilizing social media proved immensely effective after fallout from Harvey in Texas, as people could publish posts that were quickly relayed to rescuers. Due to the lack of connectivity on Puerto Rico, in some remote areas people resorted to painting “Help” signs on roads and buildings, hoping that relief efforts would reach them.

The public safety community has long called for mobile broadband to support its mission to save lives. With the adoption of LTE mobile broadband technology, public safety networks can benefit from the advantages of fast and reliable broadband data and real-time video services, opening up new communications possibilities for rescue missions and disaster recovery situations.

In an effort to make mission-critical mobile broadband a reality, Nokia, for example, has a dedicated comprehensive technology and services portfolio called ViTrust. The portfolio includes rapidly deployable solutions for emergency and disaster recovery situations to establish coverage in remote areas, among other features.

The Finnish company recently expanded the portfolio with new services to help first responders take advantage of reliable and secure high-performance applications on their public safety devices. The services provide trouble-free continuity of operations for public safety agencies across a multi-vendor, multi-technology mission critical communications environment.

‘Care for public safety’, for instance, is a service Nokia introduced to ensure that the most demanding communications needs to public safety organizations are fulfilled. The company says it ensures that new network functionality and services interworking with multivendor LTE networks are available from day one.

One European operator is already using this service and seeing the benefits of reduced operational downtime risks, according to Nokia, with service levels stabilizing faster than before and fulfilling public safety requirements.

“The success of moving to broadband-based critical communications requires deep technological and operational expertise,” said Asad Rizvi, head of Nokia's global business development in Global Services. “Nokia has both, from our long history of working with agencies to our global service expertise in broadband.”

The public safety LTE market is expected to be valued at US$3,091.3 million by 2023, according to new market research published by MarketsandMarkets, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 25.7 percent from US$782.9 million in 2017. The factors that are driving the growth of this market, according to the report, are the rising demand for unmanned operations and remote surveillances, and elimination of connectivity issues between networks.

It’s no secret that telecom operators have struggled against the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) applications like WhatsApp and Skype, who have challenged traditional voice and SMS revenue streams. Some operators have called for regulators to subject OTTs to legacy telecommunications regulations in order to even the playing field. But such suggestions are misguided, according to the ITU.

Telecom operators are stuck in a predicament regarding OTT services who utilize their networks. They have little control over the growth of OTTs because users should be free to use the internet as they please. The network carrier only carries the IP packets from source to destination. They might be aware of the packets and their contents, but cannot do much about it. Carriers have had to roll with the punches and figure out how to adapt.

Ultimately, using VoIP (voice-over-IP) is a cheaper alternative to making expensive phone calls because the user doesn’t have to pay to use the dedicated phone line and instead utilizes an internet connection without any extra costs. As is the case with most VoIP services, calls made using the internet are often free while calls made to a cellular network require a payment. The advanced communication functions of modern smartphones have played a role in the rapid growth of OTT services.

The question is: what can network carriers do about it? Telecom carriers have lost hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue to VoIP services, statistics show. Some network carriers reacted, of course, by imposing restrictions on VoIP services. AT&T did this when Apple released its iPhone and the US telecom operator didn’t want its network being used for VoIP calling. AT&T lifted the block in 2009 after pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

AT&T had an agreement with Apple to ban apps that would enable iPhone users to make phone calls using a wireless data connection. The scandal was revealed when the FCC requested that the companies explain why Google’s Voice app was rejected for the iPhone app store. The FCC was led to investigate if AT&T and Apple were colluding to prevent competition, sparking the beginning of a sour relationship between telecom providers and OTTs.

Can telcos come out on top?

For decades, telecom operators had free reign to charge rates for voice, data and SMS largely in excess of their marginal cost, which created a market ripe with innovation. The International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) recent report ‘The State of Broadband 2017’ highlights the struggle telecom operators have faced since that period began to wane, as online applications became increasingly popular with consumers around the world who wished to interact in ways not possible through traditional communications channels.

Communication has been transformed by the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Skype, WeChat, Google, WhatsApp and Viber. These OTT services have “transformed the way people build communities and search for information, and made valuable contributions to health, education, finance and entertainment,” ITU claims in the report. “Online applications now generate a significant proportion of the socioeconomic impact of digitization and utilization of the internet itself.”

The demand for OTT services has driven the telecom industry to a new era, and some telecom operators – in defense of their traditional revenues – have sought to “handicap” the growth of OTT players, the report suggests. It’s important to note, however, that these OTT services, however disruptive they may be, are driving demand for telecom operators’ broadband services. Without the content and services that OTTs provide, consumers would be less willing to pay operators for internet access, ITU claims.

“The operators’ complaints make as much sense as cable operators that sell access to cable channels complaining that people are watching too much TV, driving up the demand for their own services,” the report says, “Or a restaurant complaining that too many people want to eat its food driving up food costs. Operators sell access – not content – but people only want that access to use online content.”

Telecom operators, according to the report, claim they cannot invest in their networks because online OTT services have limited their ability to generate revenue. The ITU says this is “inaccurate” and “misguided”.

Some telecom operators have called upon regulators to apply the “same rules for the same service” by encouraging authorities to subject all online OTT services to legacy telecommunications regulations. ITU rejects this, emphasizing that OTTs don’t offer the “same service” as telecom operators, and that subjecting them to the same rules would be “entirely inappropriate”.

OTT services like Facebook and Google, for example, don’t provide equivalent services as telecom operators, the report points out. Operators provide access to the internet and some vertically integrated services that take advantage of, and are bundled with, general access. Online OTTs, on the other hand, provide interactive experiences for internet users that go beyond traditional voice and SMS, including payment services, chat services and photo/video sharing.

The fundamental differences between the telecom sector and online OTT services has led to the establishment of different rules, the report highlights. For instance, telecom regulations are intended to ensure that established operators – who own network infrastructure with high barriers to entry and face limited competition – do not use these privileges to the disadvantage of consumers. OTT services, by contrast, don’t control network infrastructure and must compete fiercely to retain customers who could easily be swayed.

There’s also the perception that OTT payers get a “free ride” on telecom network infrastructure which is financed by operators. But in truth, OTT players invest billions of dollars annually in a combination of physical facilities, according to the ITU, including data centers, fiber networks, servers and routers, which form an “essential part of the physical fabric of the internet”. In fact, according to the report, online OTT players invested an average of US$33 billion per year in infrastructure from 2011-2013.

ITU argues that telecom operators should recognize how much online OTT players drive consumers’ willingness to pay for internet access, which then provides more opportunities to generate revenue and finance new infrastructure. According to the report, consumers who demand the most data tend to spend more money on mobile contracts that feature high-speed data – revenue that goes directly to the telecom operators.

“Regulatory authorities do not have to choose directly between the interests of online application providers and telecom operators,” the ITU report concludes with. The most important aspects of internet usage that regulatory authorities should focus on, the report suggests, are adhering to customer needs, ensuring that the internet is widely available, and prioritizing connectivity, competition and innovation.

Qualcomm has joined AT&T, Nokia, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec and Trustonic as part of the IoT Cybersecurity Alliance formed earlier this year. The purpose of the group is to collaborate and pool together collective capabilities and resources to tackle emerging security challenges in the Internet of Things (IoT).

With over 1.5 billion IoT devices shipped using its chips, Qualcomm brings to the Alliance expertise in comprehensive security solutions rooted on hardware, for a wide array of edge devices including wearables, voice and music, connected cameras, robotics and drones, home control and automation, home entertainment, and commercial and industrial IoT.

“Robust IoT security needs to be built into the silicon that powers edge devices. A solid IoT security approach requires a combination of hardware-based security features tightly integrated with the software, communication protocols, applications and the cloud,” said Seshu Madhavapeddy, vice president, product management, IoT, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“We are pleased to work with other members of the IoT Cybersecurity Alliance to support the IoT ecosystem, sharing best practices that help to protect consumers and businesses adopting IoT technologies,” Seshu added.

The IoT Cybersecurity Alliance brings together leading security providers and IoT experts to research and raise awareness of best practices for securing the growing IoT ecosystem. The Alliance’s mission is to advise businesses and their customers as well as to educate the industry on the cybersecurity measures needed to help create a safer IoT ecosystem that fosters collaboration and advances technologically secure IoT innovation.

Alliance members are raising awareness around IoT security at the endpoint, network, cloud and application layer, using overarching threat analytics to study the IoT ecosystem. The Alliance advocates for an “always-on” security approach.

US telecommunications incumbent AT&T has announced that it will expand its 5G trials to three additional US cities by the end of the year. The operator has already adopted an aggressive approach to developing the next-generation technology - but its latest statement is indicative of its desire to ramp up operations in its attempts to be in a position to deploy 5G technology by the end of 2018.

In a statement released to the press, the US telecommunications colossus said it would conduct fixed wireless 5G trials in Waco, Texas, Kalamazoo, Michigan and South Bend, Indiana in latter half of this year. It made the announcement following the successful launch of its fixed wireless trial in Austin, Texas with a host of local businesses.

AT&T has claimed that it has garnered a lot of useful information and gained new insights into (mmWave) performance and propagation since commencing the tests in Austin, and has disclosed seeing speeds of up to 1GBps and latency rates well below 10 milliseconds.

The US operator now aims to user the additional trials in the US cities mentioned above to increase the number of participants and expand the physical footprint for 5G technology. It has been further disclosed that AT&T strategic plan with the next wave of testing is to reach universities, hospitals, restaurants and other small medium enterprises with the next-generation technology.

The trials in the Waco, Michigan and Indiana will be very similar to those conducted in Texas - as participants will be allowed to stream premium live TV via DirecTV Now - as well as gain access to faster broadband services thanks to the 5G connection.

SVP of AT&T’s wireless network architecture, Marachel Knight said moving the testing program away from the lab and into the physical environment is able to convey to them key information and insights into the technology. He said, “Taking our fixed wireless 5G trials out of the lab and into the real world helps us learn important factors about mmWave and 5G.

In addition to these tests, AT&T is collaboration with Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia and Intel on other 5G-related projects. A representative of AT&T said it would continue to invest aggressively in equipment - spectrum and technology, which will lay the foundation for 5G, standards for 5G have still not yet been finalized.

Despite the uncertainty in relation to the standardization of 5G, AT&T has claimed it is targeting a commercial deployment date of 2018, with the deployment likely to happen closer to the end of the year.

Its major competitor Verizon is also aiming for a 2018 launch, and is currently conducting pre-commercial trials for fixed wireless 5G in 11 cities.