AT&T*, which offers the nation’s most advanced mobile broadband experience, announced today that through 2009, it has certified more than 370 wireless specialty consumer and machine-to-machine devices – such as ereaders, netbooks, digital photo frames, personal navigation devices, and home security monitoring and smart grid devices – for use on its mobile broadband network.
Consumers and business customers rely on AT&T’s wireless network to access a range of new, innovative solutions to make their lives and workplaces more efficient and productive. In addition to consumer electronics devices, or emerging devices, these solutions include rugged handsets and laptops, healthcare tracking tools, and meter-reading, vending machine, and home detention devices, among multiple devices designed to support the needs of a broad range of M2M solutions for enterprises.
Since forming a dedicated organization to focus on wirelessly connecting new categories of emerging devices in late 2008, AT&T has emerged as the clear industry leader in one of the wireless industry’s fastest growing areas.
“AT&T's network has been leading the nation in smartphone mobile broadband usage for close to two years. As a result, today we offer the nation’s most advanced mobile broadband experience, with twice as many smartphone customers choosing us and leading consumer electronics companies naming us as their network of choice for emerging devices,” said Glenn Lurie, president of emerging devices, resale and partnerships.
“AT&T offers advantages our U.S. competitors cannot: the nation’s fastest 3G network, the GSM world standard for wireless technology – which allows customers to use their wireless devices for voice in 220 countries and data services in more than 190 countries through roaming agreements – and the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network,” said Lurie. “Plus we’ll be able to offer customers even faster speeds in 2010 and 2011 in advance of 4G networks and devices being widely available, setting us further apart from the competition as the mobile broadband leader.”
Today, AT&T is supporting or has announced plans to support devices in many of the major emerging device categories:
* eReaders: AT&T provides the mobile broadband connection for top selling eReaders, including the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble nook. AT&T has signed agreements to connect the Plastic Logic QUE™ proReader and Interead’s COOL-ER 3G, both expected to launch in the coming months.
* Netbooks: AT&T provides embedded wireless connectivity for netbooks and laptops from all major computing device manufacturers, including Acer, Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung, among others, all available today through either AT&T’s company owned retail locations, att.com, or leading national retailers.
* Personal Navigation Devices: AT&T provides the network connection to the only wirelessly connected, dedicated personal navigation devices in the market, the Garmin nĆ¼vi® 1690 and the TomTom XL 340S LIVE, both featuring local search and fuel price services, among other content.
* Digital Photo Frames: AT&T will provide the wireless connection for two digital photo frames – Isabella’s VIZIT and the Pandigital Photo Mail LED Digital Photo Frame – both expected to be in market in the first quarter of 2010.
* Telematics Devices: AT&T currently enables telematics service for a major luxury automotive OEM and has plans to expand to other automakers.
“We are committed to collaborating with consumer electronics manufacturers and all other companies in the emerging devices ecosystem to help drive innovation and growth in what is perhaps the most exciting area in the wireless industry today,” said Lurie. “We’ve developed the infrastructure to help electronic manufacturers quickly bring their products to market, creating new business models, offering new pricing structures for customers who purchase emerging devices, and continually expanding our mobile network capabilities to support the long-term growth of these devices.”
Investments in Spurring Emerging Device Growth
Last year, AT&T teamed with Jasper Wireless to build a platform to connect and support a variety of emerging consumer electronic and business devices on AT&T’s wireless network. The proprietary platform – AT&T Control Center, powered by Jasper Wireless – accelerates market entry for connected devices while offering unique features such as instant activation and flexible rate plans that benefit device manufacturers and end-user customers, including consumers, small businesses and enterprises. In fact, by integrating this platform with its network, AT&T can enable manufacturers to go from concept to market in as little as six months – and to build a high-quality customer experience so most devices are already activated and ready to go “out-of-the-box.”
AT&T also opened a dedicated emerging device certification lab in Austin in September to serve as the hub for testing network compatibility, data performance and audio quality for a broad range of non-traditional, wirelessly-enabled devices The lab also manages field tests for these devices in markets across the country.
This month, AT&T launched a new web site — www.att.com/edo — which is the “front door” into its Emerging Devices Organization for consumer electronics and next-generation device manufacturers. The site includes the AT&T M2M Developer Kit, a Device Certification On-Boarding Tool, and information to help prospective business allies determine the right business model, network options, product specifications, and potential customer care and distribution solutions.
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