New ReCode Interview With AT&T CEO

[tigerfan33]

And caps, if your ISP doesn't have them, will implement them, and make the overage threshold lower. The internet is not free, someone will be paying for the fiber and hardware to handle the additional traffic one way or another.

5G to the home will be much cheaper since no fiber to home will be needed. The big question is when will 5G be implemented everywhere.

 

[whitewolf8214]

Soon

 

[rad]

5G to the home will be much cheaper since no fiber to home will be needed. The big question is when will 5G be implemented everywhere.

Forget the home part, you need to connect the 5G sites to the internet plus the hardware to support all those connections plus the increased load on the peering points to backbone bandwidth and then connections to the CDN's, someone going to be paying for all that.

 

[slice1900]

Airgig and 5G are not the same thing. 5G uses mm wave technology and will require transmitting antennas and a receive antenna at each house.

But they do serve the same end purpose.

Yes, AirGig essentially provides the backhaul so that they can site mini cell towers anywhere there are power lines, without the very expensive proposition of running fiber to it. That will allow them to provide cell coverage (not just fixed 5G for rural internet, but also LTE for the hundreds of millions of cell phones that support LTE and not 5G) anywhere in the US that people live, the only exceptions would be people so far off the beaten path they don't even have utility power nearby.

The way they are doing it it is incredibly cheap too. The AirGig modules clamp onto power lines so nothing needs to be modified on the pole or power line, and it essentially "steals" the power it needs from that power line so it doesn't need a separate plug (that's another reason they have to get the utility's agreement, but the amount of power is likely only on the order of tens of watts per module) It only takes as long to install as it takes a guy to climb up a pole. Once at the top, 10 seconds to clamp it on, then climb down and do the next (every three poles or so) If they really could get it working via drone (I'm skeptical the power companies will want something that could short the lines and blow the transformer flying so close) it would be even faster.

AirGig is a FAR bigger deal for getting better coverage in rural areas for both internet and cellular than 5G is. They could already cover those areas with LTE (and in some areas, have already begun rolling it out) but are still restricted to where they have fiber. Running fiber to towers that don't have it is very expensive, which is why even if you get LTE out in the sticks sometimes it is pretty slow - that's because the backhaul to many rural towers (for all carriers, not just AT&T) is a 1.5 Mbps T1 line.[/QUOTE]

 

[slice1900]

5G to the home will be much cheaper since no fiber to home will be needed. The big question is when will 5G be implemented everywhere.

AirGig has nothing to do with 5G, it is a fiber replacement in rural areas only. It isn't even an option in many more built up places because it requires aerial power lines - it doesn't work on buried power lines. While there's no reason I know of why it wouldn't work in older urban/suburban areas with aerial power lines AT&T hasn't talked about using it in such areas. They might use it here and there.

AirGig could and will be used to provide backhaul for LTE too, I'm sure. After all one of the bigger reasons for doing this even in areas without houses to provide internet to is to provide good cellular coverage in the middle of nowhere. You don't want to do only 5G, since today no one has phones that support 5G and two years from now they will still be comparatively rare. Even when people do have 5G phones, there are SO MANY frequencies 5G will use that covering them all in a phone will be impossible. Too many antennas and related discrete components. I think it will be a real thing that people have phones that "support 5G" but don't work on some carrier's 5G deployments for that reason. Especially the early ones, there will be a lot of people pissed when they buy a phone next year that touts "5G" but later find it doesn't actually work on the 5G that eventually gets installed where they live.

 

[CSM]

Could one day AT&T replace their Arris gateway with a Samsung 5g gateway?

AT&T names Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia as 5G equipment suppliers | FierceWireless

 

[bobvick]

One other thing that will help those who live out in the middle of nowhere. I hadn't heard anything about it for a while, but apparently AT&T is pretty close to deploying AirGig. That will basically allow for a mini-base station anywhere there are power lines, so anyone who has electricity would theoretically be able to get internet. It is apparently very cheap to run (they think they will be able to install the necessary hardware by drone eventually so no one has to climb the pole)

The gotcha is that the devices clamp onto power lines (though the data doesn't actually run through the lines, but uses them as a waveguide and travels through the air surrounding them) so they would need the permission of the electric utility. Which means a lot of legal headache, since rural areas often have small cooperatives that own/operate the power lines. It will probably have to come from the customers telling the utility to talk to AT&T, rather than AT&T trying to track them down. If they can get enough customers together, it would probably be worth it for AT&T to install.

Many cooperatives are starting their own fiber build outs. Our co-op is the second or third smallest in the state (Alabama) with about 7,500 customers. It has started a FTTH/FTTB buildout. Currently has about 2,700 customers. It is coming down the road I live on now, and service should be made available some time around the end of this year or the first of next year. Many co-ops, while small are very forward thinking.

 

[NashGuy]

AirGig is a FAR bigger deal for getting better coverage in rural areas for both internet and cellular than 5G is.

Yes, as you've explained well here, AirGig could be a huge game changer in terms of the potential reach of fast (100Mbps+) broadband throughout the US, as well as the availability of a 2nd or 3rd broadband provider to lots of homes, which can only help drive down costs and increase (or eliminate) data caps.

I think AirGig may have been something I mentioned to you awhile back when you kept insisting that satellite TV would be necessary for another decade or more because of the lack of broadband in rural areas. How can customers switch from satellite to streaming if they don't have fast internet? But between AT&T's AirGig; T-Mobile's forthcoming broadband and TV service in rural areas via long-range 600-700MHz wireless; the continued expansion of Comcast and Charter's networks (with the latter looking at how fixed wireless might play a role); and the rise of rural broadband co-ops -- I think the situation is going to look significantly different in 5 or 6 years than it does now.

 

[navychop]

Yep. Especially if AirGig works out. And/or the LEO/MEO Internet schemes.

But it sounds so much like Broadband over Power Lines and previous Internet from orbit schemes, that all failed.


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[slice1900]

Many cooperatives are starting their own fiber build outs. Our co-op is the second or third smallest in the state (Alabama) with about 7,500 customers. It has started a FTTH/FTTB buildout. Currently has about 2,700 customers. It is coming down the road I live on now, and service should be made available some time around the end of this year or the first of next year. Many co-ops, while small are very forward thinking.

People who live in the market of those are lucky. Most aren't so lucky, though.

 

[slice1900]

Yep. Especially if AirGig works out. And/or the LEO/MEO Internet schemes.

But it sounds so much like Broadband over Power Lines and previous Internet from orbit schemes, that all failed.

This is NOTHING like broadband over power lines. That ran the signal inside the electric wires, which greatly limited potential throughput and had many sources of potential interference. AirGig runs the signals through the air just like other wireless products, the only difference is that it takes advantage of an effect that AT&T accidentally discovered where very high frequency wireless signals want to "stick" to the space surrounding uninsulated conductive wire.

 

[navychop]

I understand the basics of the technology. The point isn’t that the tech is similar, it’s that it’s another new scheme to get broadband deployed rapidly and rather cheaply.

We will see if some real world aspect throws cold water on the idea.


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[bobvick]

People who live in the market of those are lucky. Most aren't so lucky, though.

There are more and more electric cooperatives starting projects like these every day.

However, I know that most have not, and I am fortunate to be served by one that is doing it already.

The original intent of my post was directed at a comment you made in yours, perhaps you didn't mean it the way it came across, but you stated in your post about AirGig

"so they would need the permission of the electric utility. Which means a lot of legal headache, since rural areas often have small cooperatives that own/operate the power lines."

My intention was to show that many if not most cooperatives are very forward thinking and would likely welcome something like AirGig, unless they have their own broadband project.

What would make a cooperative more difficult to deal with and why would they pose more of a legal barrier than an investor owned utility or a municipal utility?

 

[slice1900]

There are more and more electric cooperatives starting projects like these every day.

However, I know that most have not, and I am fortunate to be served by one that is doing it already.

The original intent of my post was directed at a comment you made in yours, perhaps you didn't mean it the way it came across, but you stated in your post about AirGig

"so they would need the permission of the electric utility. Which means a lot of legal headache, since rural areas often have small cooperatives that own/operate the power lines."

My intention was to show that many if not most cooperatives are very forward thinking and would likely welcome something like AirGig, unless they have their own broadband project.

What would make a cooperative more difficult to deal with and why would they pose more of a legal barrier than an investor owned utility or a municipal utility?

It isn't that it would be more difficult to deal with a particular cooperative, just that there are thousands and thousands of them across the US. I'm sure AT&T would find it makes more sense to deal with bigger utilities at first because it would open up a lot more potential customers than a small cooperative that serves a few thousand homes. Especially if that small cooperative is an "island" where AT&T doesn't have any fiber - they'd have to either run fiber into that cooperative's footprint, or make a deal with someone else to use AirGig on their wires/poles to reach that cooperative in the first place.