AT&T joint venture with China Telecom will have expanded scope, including VoLTE roaming
AT&T and China Telecom have inked a deal to develop network services in the areas of cloud-based big data, Voice over LTE roaming, software-defined networks and the internet of things for multinational corporations operating in China.
The two companies said that they are “looking to help multinational customers use highly secure global communications to fuel business growth in China and around the world.” AT&T and China Telecom have a joint venture, Shanghai Symphony Telecommunications, that was created in 2000 and is approaching the end of its 20-year authorization. The new agreement confirms their plans to renew the joint venture and expand the locations that it serves as well as the scope of the JV.
Under the new agreement, both operators agreed to help establish and accelerate SDN industry standards, “explore the potential of VoLTE roaming” and begin bilateral roaming tests that they had agreed upon in a previous roaming agreement for business customers.
Back in in 2011, AT&T supported China Telecom’s efforts to serve global businesses in the U.S. through an agreement that migrated AT&T’s existing IP-VPN service into China and involved jointly deploying an expanded suite of VPN-based services, telepresence, managed hosting and cloud-based services, network integration services and enterprise mobility solutions. In addition, the two companies agreed to connect their MPLS-based IP networks in the United States designed to support the expansion of Chinese companies outside of their home country.
AT&T builds out fixed wireless for 8 more states
In domestic news, AT&T also said that it has expanded the reach of its fixed wireless Internet service to more than 70,000 locations in 9 states. The carrier kicked off the service in Georgia in April, and has now turned up service in rural and underserved parts of Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Louisiana.
The move is part of its Connect America Fund commitment to the Federal Communications Commission, under which 10 operators including AT&T were awarded $1.5 billion in 2015 to increase connectivity options in rural or low-income areas. Under the terms of the program, operators must provide speeds of at least 10 megabits per second and AT&T said that it will meet that level of service from cellular towers with an LTE-based service that reaches an external antenna on homes or businesses, to support an in-home Wi-Fi router. AT&T received $427 million under the Connect America program.
AT&T has agreed to provide service in more than 400,000 locations by the end of this year and more than 1.1 million by 2020. AT&T said that it expects to launch service in 18 states total by the end of the year, with launches still to come in Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.
The available plan for the fixed wireless service includes 160 GB of data.
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