The carrier says its in ‘advanced discussions’ with power companies to trial AirGig technology
AT&T reps said the carrier is in “advanced discussion” with power companies regarding at least two trial projects for a technology developed by AT&T called AirGig, which transmits high-speed wireless broadband using power lines.
The concept of using power lines to transmit broadband has been around for some time, but has never seen large scale commercialization. In fact, back in 2004, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules to allow the transmission scheme. At that time many people in the industry expected electric utilities to experiment with broadband over power lines. When it was first approved, speeds were not expected to be significantly faster than those delivered by other, then-existing technologies.
AT&T said one of the trial locations will be in the U.S. “with others to be determined in the coming months.” The service provider said it has tested the tech “at our outdoor facility for some time with positive results.”
AT&T Labs CTO Andre Fuetsch characterized Project AirGig has one aspect of how the company is approaching 5G, which has been described as a fully converged network of networks, fitting numerous connectivity technologies into a unified air interface.
“We are looking forward to begin testing the possibilities of AT&T Labs’ invention for customers and utility companies,” Fuetsch said. “AT&T is focused on delivering a gigabit-per-second speed everywhere we can with our wired and wireless technologies. Project AirGig represents a key invention in our 5G Evolution approach. AT&T Labs is ‘writing the textbook’ for a new technology approach that has the potential to deliver benefits to utility companies and bring this multi-gigabit, low-cost internet connectivity anywhere there are power lines – big urban market, small rural town, globally.”
AT&T Labs started working on AirGig more than a decade ago and ultimately incorporated millimeter wave technology into the design. That work has resulted in more than 200 patents and patent applications, the company said, adding that in the process “AT&T Labs engineers and scientists invented low-cost plastic antennas, a Radio Distributed Antenna System, mmWave surface launchers and inductive power devices.”
