In 2016, AT&T researchers announced project AirGig, what they call a transformative technology that could deliver low-cost, multi-gigabit wireless internet access speeds using power lines and reaching into 99.9 percent of U.S. homes and businesses. With 30 percent of the U.S. still without broadband access, AT&T’s plan is to make gigabit-speed internet “as widespread as electricity.”
TelecomTV reported that after an initial, successful trial with customers in rural Georgia last year, hopes are that AirGig will deliver last-mile wireless connectivity to any home or handheld wireless device without the need to deploy expensive new fiber-to-the-home. Additionally, it will permit multi-gigabit connections without having to build new cell towers or bury new underground cable.
How does it work? TelecomTV reported that AT&T has been experimenting with multiple ways to send a modulated radio signal alongside, but not over, medium-voltage power lines. To enable this breakthrough, AT&T has invented low-cost plastic Radio Distributed Antenna Systems (RDAS) antennas that can deliver fixed-broadband and mobile broadband services for 4G LTE and 5G multi-gigabit mobile and fixed deployments.
According to Andre Fuetsch, the President of AT&T Labs and the company’s CTO, “We’ve applied for more than 500 patents for AirGig and conducted field trials both in and outside the United States. And today, we’re confident that we’re on the cusp of a technology that could potentially help to solve the digital divide in this country.”
TelecomTV reported that AT&T is now preparing to mount another field trial focusing on surface-wave systems. AT&T says it could be “an important ingredient” in 5G networks and systems not least because “Project AirGig and 5G have a lot of natural synergies.” Additionally, AirGig has been described as “a wild card in AT&T’s 5G strategy” by industry commentators.
AT&T says it cannot yet set a precise date for when AirGig will become commercially available but wants to start deployment during 2022, “if not earlier.”
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September 20, 2018
