By Sue Marek; FierceWireless ~ Jun 13, 2019

AT&T and Nokia have developed a radio edge cloud (REC) appliance that the two companies plan to release into open source via the Linux Foundation. The REC will make it possible for third parties to develop apps and get access to the radio access network (RAN).

REC is part of the Telco Appliance blueprint within the Linux Foundation’s Akraino project. Akraino is an open source software stack that optimizes edge computing systems and applications. Akraino is made up of more than 11 blueprint families, and more than 19 specific blueprints are under development to support a variety of edge use cases.

By Dan Jones; Light Reading ~ Jun 12, 2019

 

AT&T and Uber are working on LTE — and eventually 5G — connectivity for vertical take-off and landing taxis (eVTOLs) and cargo drones.

The multi-stage deal was announced at Uber’s yearly Elevate Summit in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

AT&T is already working with Uber to test drone delivery in San Diego. Its networks will also be used to support the launch of Uber Copter, a high-end helicopter service that’s launching in New York City in July.

By Lillian Rizzo & Joe Flint, WSJ; MarketWatch ~ Jun 06, 2019

WarnerMedia has abandoned its plan for a three-tiered streaming service and instead will likely package HBO, sister channel Cinemax and the vast library of Warner Bros. TV shows and movies into one offering at a price of between $16 and $17 a month, according to people familiar with the matter.

The subscription service will debut in “beta” form later this year, the people said and is expected to be fully up and running as early as next March, according to one of them.

AT&T Inc.’s T, -0.22%   WarnerMedia is also considering rolling out an ad-supported version of the streaming service — at a cheaper price — later in 2020, they said. It is unclear what the content makeup of that version would be. Further down the road, WarnerMedia could add an additional premium option for people to watch live events or sports, one of the people said.

By Jeff Baumgartner; Light Reading ~ Jun 06, 2019

The hyperbole was on high boil Wednesday as AT&T’s John Donovan made some big pronouncements, but little detail, about how the company is evolving and transforming its TV business.

At the Credit Suisse Communications Conference in New York yesterday, Donovan was asked about how AT&T’s pay-TV and streaming video plans, including recent price changes for DirecTV Now and a coming “thin-client” version of the fuller-freight DirecTV service that will be delivered via the Internet rather than via satellite.

“We’re going to transform our product,” Donovan said. “It’s the consumer product I’m most excited about since the iPhone. It radically reshapes what your concept of television is.”

But how, exactly? After all, the market is teeming with relatively new OTT-TV options, with many of those services also grappling with razor-thin margins thanks to the continuous rise of programming costs. What TV magic does AT&T have in its bag of tricks?

The company is trying a new approach to counteract cord-cutting in its media division.

By Billy Duberstein; The Motley Fool ~ Jun 09, 2019

AT&T’s (NYSE:T) purchase of Time Warner was held up by regulatory review over fears of the combined entity holding too much market power. Yet one year after the merger closed, it looks as if AT&T is the one that could use some help.

While investors may have thought AT&T had a master plan for its Time Warner acquisition, you wouldn’t know it from the company’s actions over the past year. Management has been tweaking strategies amid middling results, but the company has yet to meaningfully arrest rampant cord-cutting and the rise of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX). In fact, the Wall Street Journal just reported that AT&T is looking to change plans for its upcoming streaming service … again.

The new WarnerMedia streaming offering is likely to be much less complicated than the previous plan, which shows AT&T is warming up to some hard truths.

By Jeff Baumgartner; Light Reading ~ Jun 07, 2019

AT&T could spin-out DirecTV and divest the company, with Dish Network viewed as a likely suitor, top industry analyst John Hodulik with UBS speculated in a report issued Thursday.

A spin-out of DirecTV, a company that AT&T acquired for $49 billion in July 2015, would help AT&T put some distance between itself and its declining pay-TV business.

“We believe the weakest piece in the AT&T puzzle is DTV,” Hodulik wrote, adding that the current outlook for the company is 2.8 million video sub losses in 2019.

He surmised that transaction involving DirecTV could, in part, give AT&T substantial tax benefits and narrow the valuation gap against Verizon, and boost AT&T shares by 10% to 20%.

By Mike Dano; Light Reading ~ Jun 05, 2019

The executive in charge of AT&T’s wireless strategy still isn’t offering any clarity about how the operator will eventually charge for 5G services, despite boasting that AT&T is a “world leader” in 5G.

When questioned how AT&T might bill for its next-generation network, AT&T’s John Donovan said that 5G is a “premium-priced network,” but he added that it’s “hard to say.”

“Ultimately it’s going to be a function of the value to the consumer and your competition,” he said Wednesday in remarks at an investor event. “In certain applications it will be worth a lot, and in certain applications it will be worth a little. It’s not even clear yet that it would show up in a plan as, ‘Oh, this will just cost $5 more a month.’ It may be embedded in applications that carry with it a different economic model. So I think 5G has the opportunity not only to put more value in the network but to alter what the business model is, to make it more of a three-sided business model than a two-sided business model.”

By Nicole Lafond; Talking Points Memo ~ Jun 03, 2019

Clearly rattled by CNN’s international prominence during his visit to the United Kingdom on Monday morning, President Trump suggested on Twitter that Americans boycott AT&T, CNN’s parent company, to force changes at the network.

“I believe if people stopped using or subscribing to @ATT, they would be forced to make big changes at @CNN,” he said. “When the world watches @CNN, it gets a false picture of USA. Sad!”

Trump’s CNN insults are nothing new, but the suggestion of a boycott of a parent company in order to influence the coverage of news outlet takes his incessant attacks on the media one step further.

Bellhead CEO Randall Stephenson is taking on Netflix and Comcast simultaneously. It won’t be easy.

By Geoff Colvin; Fortune ~ May 21, 2019

AT&T was not actually acquired by a company called Game of Thrones Corp. earlier this year, though consumers could be forgiven for wondering. AT&T cell phone stores across the land seemed to have been taken over by a vaguely medieval industrial behemoth that had filled them with the heraldry of House Lannister, House Stark, and other Westerosi factions, plus costumes, weapons, and GOT-emblazoned smartphone cases, wireless chargers, and water bottles. Viewers of March Madness on AT&T-owned TBS saw slightly weird GOT-themed promos for the college basketball tournament and GOT-themed tweets (“Send a raven—they’re on to the #Elite8. #MarchMadness”). Another sign of GOT’s ascendance: The Iron Throne itself—or rather, a seven-foot-high, 310-pound replica of it—sits prominently in the lobby of AT&T headquarters in Dallas.

By Monica Alleven; FierceWireless ~ May 17, 2019

Members of AT&T’s technical and regulatory staff met with officials in the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau on Thursday to discuss a possible new category of devices operating in the Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) 3.5 GHz band.

According to an ex parte filing (PDF), the meeting primarily focused on AT&T’s questions about whether the commission would entertain a proposal to increase the power levels for a new category of CBSDs, a term that generally refers to CBRS small cells.

The FCC currently has two categories for CBSDs: Category A refers to a lower power base station and Category B refers to a CBSD that must be deployed outdoors and has higher maximum power limits compared with Category A devices.