AT&T is setting up laboratories in Plano, Texas in the pursuit of researching 5G use cases with assistance from Nokia and Ericsson. AT&T proclaims that the 5G Innovation Studio will furnish a venue for producing next-gen products, like holographic communications and drone services – reducing their time to market. 

The studio is setup with AT&T 5G connectivity, with its millimeter wave and sub-6Ghz spectrum. Additionally, it has standalone 5G core networks (5G SA) and edge functionality, alongside network KPIs to drive creating, tests, and validating with regards to fresh 5G experiences. 

Senior personnel of AT&T, unveiling the goals of the lab, stated that it has to assist in getting products to market quicker, furnishing a space where clients can explore and trial technology with advanced network functionality. With present and prospective clients, and Ericsson and Nokia, industry giants like Microsoft will be taking part, in addition to smaller size companies, in the words of Raj Savoor, Vice President of Network Analytics and Automation at AT&T. 

Startups are a huge portion of the innovation ecosystem, and as a matter of fact, one of the initial use scenarios was a collaborating effort with the drone infrastructure startup, EVA. 

A test environment that represented their Microsoft Azure Edge Zone with AT&T, was in deployment, which gave a reduced latency pathway between the compute environment and the drone. This provided increased responsive control with regards to the drone’s flight path and just an instance of the potential of 5G when utilized in conjunction with edge computing. 

To fuel the never before seen potentials of 5G, AT&T have teamed up with Ericsson and Nokia who are assisting AT&T develop the technology and the environment required to provide those end-to-end customer experiences that are to bound to induce the wow factor when seen on mobiles. 

Individually, AT&T’s 5G+ will be provided to clients to experience in Houston Rockets games and other events taking place at the Houston Toyota Center. 

Preliminary clients in Houston will also obtain access to 5G+ on FirstNet, America’s public safety network. Voice communications will be maintained via always-on prioritization and preemption on 4G-LTE and the intutitive FirstNet network will establish the best path for information traffic, whether that’s 5G+ or the 4G-LTE spectrum. 

AT&T’s 5G+ is the revision of its 5G that utilizes the mmWave spectrum. A device with the capability of 5G that is compatible with mmWave frequencies is required to obtain access. 

AT&T proclaims it may have temporary reduced data speeds if the network is busy. The notion corresponds with AT&T’s strategy of viewing current clients just like new ones.  

AT&T 5G+ is out in the market in portions of 38 cities and in excess of 20 venues across the U.S.A.