As I have been reading around the web lately, AT&T is planning to invest about $19,000,000,000. That’s billion. The first step appears to opening three ‘test labs’. At least that is what a press release states.
Two of the labs will be located in the States, which is great for jobs, and then another will be somewhere outside of the US. Verizon opened a similar test center last year.
Mobile broadband traffic has gotten quite large as of late, over five thousand percent in three years, that’s astonishing, yeah, but it makes sense since so many children are getting cellphones at a younger age. My 12 year old niece just got one with unlimited texting.. not really saying that’s a good thing. Anyways, both AT&T and Verizon are working on networks that on a technology called Long Term Evolution, or LTE for short. Commercial deployment of this is scheduled some time in 2011 and is said to give higher speeds to 3G.
The press release goes in to detail about the test centers effect on AT&T, and apparently it will “enable AT&T scientists and engineers to work directly with device makers, application developers and network equipment providers to expedite development of an ecosystem of mobile and wired broadband services and capabilities for consumers and business users.”
It’s great seeing a new test center such as this opening up, especially in the United States. It should offer a few new jobs here and there for a bunch of new people, as it will focus on software development, prototyping, and equipment testing for cell phones in the mobile sector. On top of that, the center will also be used a little bit for development of AT&T’s wired broadband service, and also U-verse TV.
I am excited to see what new stuff they pump out! There have not been any specific locations yet as to where these jobs will be popping up, so don’t start packing your bags getting ready to move just yet. But be ready because job postings will be available sometime before 2011, guaranteed.
