AT&T Business CEO talks 5G for verticals

DALLAS–As operators look to develop 5G revenue streams beyond the consumer segment, AT&T today announced it was working with Samsung to kit out the technology giant’s Austin, Texas, semiconductor fabrication facility with next-generation cellular applications.

Thaddeus Arroyo, CEO of  AT&T Business, told attendees to the second annual AT&T Business Summit that key verticals AT&T wants to empower with 5G include healthcare, retail, public safety, smart cities and manufacturing.

“We plan to create America’s first manufacturing-focused 5G innovation center where we’re going to deliver real 5G to Samsung[‘s] Austin semiconductor facility. This is a manufacturing facility that’s one of the most advanced semiconductor fabrication facilities in the world. In this innovation zone, we’re going to use AT&T’s 5G network with Samsung’s 5G network equipment to test cutting-edge, wirelessly-enabled manufacturing technology.”
Arroyo stressed the importance of edge-to-edge intelligence. He said 5G “is going to unlock an entirely new connected experience combined with the power of edge intelligence and enabling you to drive innovation like never before. 5G is the first mobile network that has truly been born in the cloud. We know that being first to the future is not only important to us, it’s important to our customers.”

AT&T last week said it is inviting companies in the manufacturing, retail, health, finance, and public sector industries into its Foundry innovation lab in Plano, Texas, for the first time to collaborate on new digital solutions.

A new area within the facility has been given over to “all aspects of an industry environment”, going from manufacturing to distribution to retail. AT&T said the initiative will help enterprises drive their own digital transformation and bring new technologies to market more quickly.

Abhi Ingle, senior vice president of digital, distribution and channel marketing at AT&T, said: “The AT&T Foundry has mastered the art of listening to and advising our customers on solutions for their technology challenges, then turning those conversations into action.

“By bringing businesses into this collaborative environment of engineers, technologists and cybersecurity experts, we are helping them get in front of industry-specific trends in the digital age before they become mainstream and, in turn, equipping our customers with disruptive industry solutions.”

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