AT&T said it's creating an edge computing test zone in Palo Alto, California, that will go live in early 2018. The zone will be a space where developers and other companies can test connected applications like self-driving cars, augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR), and drones. At launch, the zone will use a LTE connection. The company said it expects to upgrade it to 5G once the final standards and equipment are ready, perhaps as early as the end of 2018. The company said its AT&T Foundry innovation centres in Silicon Valley and Atlanta are leading the creation of the Palo Alto test zone.
The goal of this edge test zone will be to invite developers and other third parties to rapidly test and innovate with the company. The company said it doesn’t have specific projects up and running yet, but it could see projects related to AR/VR, drones, and autonomous cars. AT&T will help them get connected to its network and turn their concepts into prototypes. It will also explore potential business models for these new services.
The Palo Alto edge computing test zone's initial test area will cover several miles and could expand over time.
In addition to the AT&T Foundry, AT&T Labs is leading a company-wide effort to architect and develop a large-scale, low-cost, and zero-touch edge computing platform that leverages open source edge stack. The company said it also published a whitepaper on att.com/innovation outlining some of the technical elements
