AT&T continues to push updates to its mobile network, detailing plans to add spectrum capacity, small cells and 5G technology; thoughts on IoT
Speaking at the Jefferies Technology Conference this week, Scott Mair, SVP for technology and engineering at AT&T, said the carrier was on track to begin testing fixed broadband services using spectrum in the 15 GHz band and pre-“5G” technology this summer, on its way to adding 28 GHz band spectrum to its tests later this year. Those tests are then expected to add a mobility component by early 2017.
Mair acknowledged the 5G technology would not adhere to any set specifications, which he said would not be available until 2018, but that like rival Verizon Communications it was important to at least begin working with some of the components expected to be part of the 5G standard in order to gain familiarity with the technology and be able to plow that experience back into the standards process.
“That’s always a risk, but it’s the best path forward,” Mair said.
Mair also provided some insight into how AT&T views network needs connected to new use cases around the “Internet of Things” and connected cars. Mair said massive IoT deployments will require networks capable of supporting 1 million devices in a one square kilometer environment; while vehicle-to-vehicle, smart city and mobile health care services will rely on extremely low latency networks of less than one millisecond in the air interface. Mair said both would require the “need to re-architect LTE” in order to meet those performance requirements.
In addition to the use of higher-band spectrum assets, Mair said 5G deployments could tap lower-band spectrum currently held by carriers as well as potentially use the 3.5 GHz band being opened up on a shared basis by the Federal Communications Commission.
In the meantime, Mair said AT&T was also set to have “thousands” of cell sites hosting the carrier’s 2.3 GHz spectrum resources by the end of this year, moving on work the carrier began last year. Mair said the spectrum would initially be used in dense urban and suburban environments where the carrier sees the greatest need for additional capacity. Moving forward, AT&T is looking in late 2017 to add support from the 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum band the carrier purchased in last year’s AWS-3 auction, with volume deployments set for 2018.
AT&T also remains a strong proponent of small cells, with Mair stating the model plays into the carrier’s overall view of engineering its network to most efficiently deliver data. For small cells, Mair said the carrier sees the dense urban and suburban environments as making the most sense for the carrier, similar to where it views the use case for millimeter wave spectrum.
Wi-Fi also remains key in AT&T’s network deployment model, with Mair noting around 80% of data generated from mobile devices is currently being transmitted using unlicensed spectrum. However, mobility and quality of service issues continue to limit the use of the technology and its greater use by the carrier.
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