The potential of augmented reality is massive but despite software development kits including Apple’s ARKit, Google’s ARCore, Amazon Sumerian and Microsoft’s Mixed Reality ecosystem, actual implementations have been limited. That’s because the current cloud infrastructure constrains actual consumer-facing AR projects. The popularity of “Pokémon Go” in summer of 2016 was an example of that; at the first Pokémon Go Fest in Chicago, 20,000 players experienced slowdowns and outages due to constrained network bandwidth. Continue reading Augmented Reality Drives Need for New Cloud Infrastructure

Last week, reporters toured the AT&T Foundry facility in Plano, Texas and conducted a group interview with Jon Summers, SVP of application and service infrastructure. During the tour, GigaOM was treated to a “real-world situation” demo of AT&T’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) network and was impressed with the results.

According to the GigaOM post: “The speeds provided on the download side were about 28.87 Mbps and were about 10.4 Mbps on the upload side. This compared to speeds of 3.77 on the download side and 1.21 Mbps on the upload for an iPhone that was capable of maxing out on AT&T’s 7.2 Mbps HSPA network. So it’s fast, but sharing those speeds with others on a cell tower will bring them down. For comparison, Verizon has promised customers speeds of 5-12 Mbps on the download side and speeds of up 5 Mbps on the upload side.”

Additionally, AT&T’s spectrum may increase as early as next year. In March, the company announced its plans to acquire T-Mobile for $39 billion ($25 billion in cash and the rest in stock). The deal is presently undergoing a regulatory-approval process. If approved, by next year AT&T could solidify its position as the largest carrier in the U.S. with about 130 million subscribers.

The merger would also help bolster AT&T’s ongoing growth. According to GigaOM, “In the last four quarters, it has reported $125 billion in revenue, and billions of dollars in capital investments in its network.”

Related New York Times article: “AT&T’s LTE 4G Speeds Could Blow Away Verizon” (5/20/11)

Related MobileBeat article: “AT&T to acquire T-Mobile for $39B” (3/20/11)

Related CNET article: “AT&T, T-Mobile customer satisfaction on the decline” (5/17/11)