Comment (4)Even if AT&T has been slowing down capital spending in other areas recently, it is focused on an LTE network upgrade designed to serve video better to its wireless users, according to a new analyst report.
MKM Partners put out a research note Tuesday suggesting that AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has a temporary "freeze" on many wireline and wireless capex projects but is still looking to future 4G applications. "AT&T is increasingly emphasizing Project Stream, which is a wireless video architecture leveraging LTE Broadcast," MKM analyst Michael Genovese writes.
AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson briefly mentioned Project Stream at a Morgan Stanley conference this spring. Here is an excerpt from his appearance. (You can read the full transcript here.)
- The data explosion is now turning into a video explosion, and video is what is now driving the traffic on the network, and it's impressive, the level of video that's reversing these networks. We think it's a wonderful growth opportunity for the industry. In fact, we have a project Xtreme [sic] which is all about one thing, and that is equipping the mobile network to accommodate video, and it's re-architecting a number of elements of the network to accommodate video, and obviously LTE broadcast technology is going to be a vital part of that.
AT&T isn't going into any more detail on what Project Stream is at the moment. A spokesman for the operator told Light Reading that it has "no other details to share" now.
However, AT&T isn't the only US operator working toward upgraded video broadcast over LTE. Verizon Wireless has its own "multicast" upgrade effort ongoing. (See Verizon's Coming Attractions: 4G Video and Verizon's 4G Video Freeze Frame.)
You can read up on LTE broadcast technology here.
— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading
