AT&T reportedly plans to announce a major smart cities initiative at CES 2016. The company is expected to use the huge consumer electronics trade show to share the names of the cities it is working with and to promote its solutions for other cities.
The term “smart cities” refers to municipalities that connect infrastructure such as traffic lights, parking meters and water meters to the Internet. Despite the fact connected “things” offer much lower revenue per user than connected people and connected cars, AT&T has decided the “Internet of Things” is an important part of its strategy going forward.
“We think 2016 will be the year when IoT becomes an indispensable part of our daily lives as consumers, governments and businesses fully embrace all it has to offer,” said Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T’s mobile and business solutions, earlier this month when AT&T shared statistics on the numbers of devices connected to its network.
About 25 million devices are now connected to the AT&T network, and in 2015 the company says it signed more than 300 IoT-related deals. The carrier said it’s working with companies around the world to connect devices across automotive, shipping, industrial, healthcare, home security and smart cities sectors.
The company said 5.8 million cars are connected to its network and that 1 million of those were added in the third quarter of 2015. Another 600,000 non-automotive devices also connected to the AT&T network in the third quarter.
