Widespread cellular outage hits the US

A cellular outage has swept across large portions of the US, causing disruptions in services provided by major telecom companies including AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

Data collected from outage tracking website Downdetector revealed that more than 32,000 incidents were reported with AT&T's service around 4:30am Eastern Time. The outage affected cities including San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago, according to information displayed on the website.

Users of...

22 February 2024 | 5G

AT&T will display brand logos on calls from verified numbers

AT&T has partnered with TransUnion to display brand names and logos for outgoing business calls, providing an extra layer of authentication and trust for customers.

The companies are offering two industry-first features: allowing brand logos to appear without a special app installed on the receiver's phone, and verifying the calls through STIR/SHAKEN standards to confirm the number has not been illegally spoofed.

This new ‘TruContact Branded Call Display’ service...

31 January 2024 | AT&T

AT&T plans most wireless traffic to flow across Open RAN by 2026

AT&T has unveiled plans to transition 70 percent of its wireless network traffic to open-capable platforms by late 2026.

The telecoms giant aims to fully integrate Open RAN sites in collaboration with industry leaders Ericsson and Fujitsu, starting as early as 2024. This departure from closed proprietary interfaces signifies a pivotal shift towards rapid scaling and effective management of diverse hardware suppliers at each cell site.

AT&T's timeline includes...

5 December 2023 | 5G

AST SpaceMobile achieves space-to-smartphone 5G connection

AST SpaceMobile has successfully established the first-ever 5G connection for both voice and data between a standard smartphone and a satellite in space.

The achievement was demonstrated by AST SpaceMobile's engineers who orchestrated a call from the serene shores of Maui, Hawaii to a Vodafone engineer located in bustling Madrid, Spain.

What makes this achievement truly remarkable is that it was accomplished using an unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone, with the...

20 September 2023 | 5G

AT&T conducts ‘space-based’ call using a regular smartphone

AT&T has achieved a significant milestone by successfully conducting the first-ever two-way audio call using satellites with a standard smartphone.

The call was made from AT&T in Midland, Texas, to mobile carrier Rakuten in Japan on a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone using AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 satellite. 

Abel Avellan, Chairman and CEO of AST SpaceMobile, commented:

“Achieving what many once considered impossible, we have reached the most...

25 April 2023 | AT&T

AT&T is all-in on Nvidia’s AI solutions

AT&T is tapping Nvidia’s expertise in artificial intelligence across its operations.

As the gatekeepers of our communications, telcos have access to vast amounts of information. The 590PB of data that AT&T process on a typical day is equivalent to around 6.5 million 4K movies.

However, turning all of this data into actionable insights can pose a serious challenge.

AT&T will use Nvidia’s AI Enterprise software suite to enhance its data...

22 March 2023 | AT&T

Hackers steal the data of millions of AT&T customers

A vendor hack has resulted in the data of millions of AT&T customers being stolen.

AT&T is sending emails to around nine million customers to alert them of the theft of their data.

The attackers did not breach AT&T directly but compromised the systems of a marketing vendor used by the US telecom giant.

All impacted users had CPNI (Customer Proprietary Network Information) stolen, including phone numbers, full names, and email addresses. A smaller...

13 March 2023 | AT&T

AT&T achieves 20Gbps speeds on a production fibre network

AT&T has achieved 20Gbps symmetric speeds on a production fibre network, an industry-first.

The operator’s Hyper-Gig service is already the fastest in the US, offering 5Gbps symmetric speeds to consumers and businesses.

AT&T has been working to further increase its speeds to ensure its network is prepared for whatever future applications are thrown at it. Earlier this year, the operator announced that it had achieved 10Gbps speeds in its labs.

Lab...

10 June 2022 | AT&T

72% of businesses lack clear hybrid work strategy

A woman working remotely with her laptop.

The vast majority of businesses lack a detailed hybrid work strategy, according to a study by telecomms firm AT&T and Dubber, a provider of cloud based call recording software.

The State of the Industry: Future of Work survey was created to gain insights from senior executives regarding current and future work models, challenges posed under new working models, and technology accelerants to aid change in the way that businesses conduct work out to 2024.

The research...

7 March 2022 | AT&T

Airlines warn upcoming 5G deployment will interfere with radio altimeters

Airline industry executives have ramped up their warnings that an upcoming type of 5G service will interfere with radio altimeters.

Radio altimeters measure the altitude above the terrain beneath an aircraft by timing how long it takes a beam of radio waves to travel to ground, reflect, and return to the craft. They are, of course, a key safety feature.

In February, the FCC completed a “C-band” (3.7–3.98 GHz) auction and issued licenses to several wireless network...

17 December 2021 | 5G