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AT&T opens up about SXSW, future of 3G network
At the AT&T Austin human factors lab. Omar L. Gallaga/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Yesterday, I had a chance to visit AT&T’s Austin lab, where it tests out new wireless products, makes improvements to its U-verse TV service through human interaction testing and makes decisions that will affect many of the products and network services we’ll be using in the coming years. It’s one of six labs the company has in the U.S.
My colleague Kirk Ladendorf was there and wrote an excellent piece for today’s paper about the lab’s 175 workers and the veil of secrecy that surrounds much of its work. (The original iPhone was tested here, as well as in Apple’s own facilities, and it was absolutely top secret. We asked if they’d show us an Apple tablet computer. Can you believe they politely declined to even acknowledge it exists!?)
In addition to what Kirk wrote in his story, we had a lot of discussion about the future of AT&Ts wireless network, the problems they had meeting iPhone data demands at South by Southwest Interactive in March and emerging services they expect will be popular like two-way video and, eventually, voice over its data network.
Jeff Johnson, executive director of services and platform planning, said the company’s current 3G network — as hammered as its been by the multitude of apps and data-intensive smartphone use — simply isn’t ready for services like that, but that we’ll see them as AT&T migrates its devices to a faster 4G network in the coming years.
As for South by Southwest 2010, the company all but guaranteed there wouldn’t be the same network meltdown and said they’ll be steering iPhone users to beefed-up Wi-Fi networks, something it’s more equipped to do since its November purchase of Wayport. AT&T is hoping more people will use Wi-Fi for video and data, freeing up its voice network for voicemail and calls.
The company didn’t say how soon we might see its faster 7.2 Mbps HSPA 3G network in Austin (it’s launched in Dallas and Houston among a handful of other cities) and whether it would be active before next March’s festival. Of its iPhone lineup, only the iPhone 3GS has the hardware technology to access those speeds.
One interesting tidbit: although I’d heard previously that there was plenty of overhead in the 3G spectrum before the company transitions to a next-generation 4G network, what I got from yesterday’s meeting was that AT&T believes 4G will be here before there’s a need to squeeze more bandwidth out of 3G. That seemed a bit contrary to what I’d been told at a recent broadband meet-up at a Capitol Mac User Group meeting.
Other highlights of the day were a truly cool usability lab where about 2,000 people a year are brought through to test out U-verse remote controls and video quality, phones, DSL install kits and other products. We saw the control room where users are monitored and the level of detail in the testing was pretty inspiring. One major project the company is working on is self-install kits for its U-verse service, but Jeff Brandt, head of the Human Factors lab, said it’s a large-scale project fraught with all kinds of complications inherent in how people’s homes are set up. Nevertheless, it’s a project that could save AT&T millions of dollars in labor a year. A similar project for self-install DSL kits saved AT&T $450 million a year based on work done out of the Austin lab.
Here’s a few photos from the day:
Steve Harbin is the director of subscription engineering at AT&T’s Austin lab. In addition to new and unreleased wireless devices, the lab tests human factors and usability of products the company already offers. Larry Kolvoord/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sunpreet Kaur is an engineer at AT&T’s wireless lab in Austin. The lab has eight copper encased rooms - to block interference from existing cell phone networks in the area - testing unreleased products such as netbooks and GPS devices. Larry Kolvoord/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
One of the copper-encased rooms used to block interference for testing wireless products. Omar L. Gallaga/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Detail of the outside of one of the copper-encased lab rooms. Omar L. Gallaga/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
A peek at an AT&T microcell device, which boosts 3G signals in the home. It’s been introduced in Charlotte, North Carolina, for $150. Omar L. Gallaga/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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By Mike
September 24, 2009 2:59 PM | Link to this
AT&T seemed to suffer another 3G service meltdown at last weekend's UT/Texas Tech game.