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AT&T to Test Broadband Over Power Lines

2016-09-21 11:34 by
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AT&T has announced its AirGig project, which uses power lines to guide high-speed wireless data signals over long distances, upgrading electrical infrastructure to double as Internet infrastructure.

AirGig involves mounting small plastic antennas on power lines so that they can draw power from them wirelessly and shoot wireless signals through the air. Those signals don't travel inside the cables but are tuned to use them like guard rails. Each link can carry multiple gigabits of data, according to AT&T. An AirGig system would use conventional cellular or Wi-Fi antennas to offer connectivity to people and their devices.

"Project AirGig has tremendous potential to transform Internet access globally – well beyond our current broadband footprint and not just in the United States," AT&T Chief Strategy Officer John Donovan said in a prepared statement. "The results we've seen from our outdoor labs testing have been encouraging, especially as you think about where we're heading in a 5G world."

The company says the project is still in the experimentation stage but the first field trials are expected in 2017. The carrier claims that AirGig is several times cheaper than standard wireless internet because it's cheaper for the company to deploy and deliver.

Read more -here-

 

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