AT&T : First in the U.S. to Mobile 5G – What’s Next? Defining AT&T’s Network Path in 2019 and Beyond

Software at the Core of Our Network

We've been on the most aggressive software path in the telecommunications industry for some time, which includes plans to virtualize and software-control 75% of our core network functions by 2020. In 2018, we reached the 65% mark as planned, taking advantage of the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) that we co-founded in 2017.

This initiative is making it faster and more cost effective to deploy technologies, such as our continued mobile 5G expansion. For example, the routers in our cell towers have traditionally been purchased as specialized, self-contained units from a small handful of vendors. In 2018, we decided to design our own cell site routers and released those hardware specs as open blueprints so any hardware maker can build them for us. And, we're running our own open source software on those routers. In 2019, we plan to deploy thousands of these 'white box' routers on towers across our network.

This year is about the power of open source in a 5G world. Yesterday we announced plans to co-develop a software platform to enable the creation of open source software under the Linux Foundation. The goal is to accelerate the deployment of open source software for the network.

Ongoing R&D Explorations

Finally, while we continue to build out our 5G network, AT&T Labs and AT&T Foundry continue to explore the unforeseen possibilities in a future 5G world and beyond. Examples include:

• Edge Computing: Based on our learnings from our first year within our edge computing test zone located at our AT&T Foundry in Palo Alto, Calif., we're now exploring ways we can enhance mobile immersive media experiences and test future 5G applications on the edge of our network, like autonomous vehicles.

In that vein, we launched Akraino Edge Stack via the Linux Foundation earlier this year. Akraino is an open source software stack that supports high-availability cloud services optimized for edge computing systems and applications. The project has moved from formation into execution and has 18 members and growing. We think there's a lot more to come.

• Business & 5G: We also opened up a space within our AT&T Foundry in Plano dedicated to prototyping innovative solutions for our customers in manufacturing, retail, finance and the public sector. We plan to bring 5G to this facility in early 2019, which will allow us to co-create 5G solutions with our customers and explore the future of enterprise innovation over 5G. And our Plano facility will work closely with our healthcare-focused AT&T Foundry in Houston.

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