AT&T packed its bags for MWC Barcelona 2022 with news to share on private 5G, hybrid cloud, massive MIMO, open RAN, and urban 5G deployment.

The operator teased most of its announcements prior to the show, including advancements on open radio access network (RAN) architecture with Intel, but it all culminated at AT&T Business CEO Anne Chow’s MWC keynote.

Indeed, the hype and largely unmet expectations for 5G haven’t waned. 

“5G is as transformative as when the smartphone was debuted, and we fundamentally believe that it can revolutionize every industry,” Chow said. The technology and its various offshoots are fueling an unprecedented era of innovation in IoT, mobile edge computing (MEC), private enterprise networks, and environmental sustainability, according to Chow.

AT&T’s commitment to Microsoft for all things cloud, not exclusive but increasingly broad, also grew this week. AT&T Private 5G Edge, a service currently under development with the hyperscaler, allows customers to roam from a private network to AT&T’s public network.

The service uses Microsoft Azure private MEC with Azure Private 5G Core to help enterprises deploy private networks on licensed or unlicensed spectrum. It also complements Azure public MEC, formerly Azure Edge Zones, that is based on AT&T Network Edge, one of the few pieces of internally developed infrastructure that AT&T kept after selling its 5G cloud stack to Microsoft in July 2021.

“AT&T has been at the forefront of deploying public and private networks for businesses in the public sector for many years. And now with Microsoft, we are working to bring private edge compute into those networks as an integrated platform,” Chow said. 

“AT&T’s Private 5G Edge solution will also be ideal for small and midsize businesses where cost and simplicity, and flexibility and ease of use are critical. So think about a convenience store that could use cameras and [artificial intelligence] tools to monitor inventory and customer traffic, identifying potential thefts and other security issues almost instantly,” she added.

The operator said it will share more details on AT&T Private 5G Edge availability later this year. Meanwhile, AT&T continues to offer a mess of 5G edge schemes, including a public MEC offering with Google Cloud, and deals with Amazon Web Services that date as far back as 2016 but remain firmly limited to on-premises edge deployments.

AT&T also shared some updates on its work with IBM on 5G wireless networking and edge computing, pointing to simulated environments where enterprises can experience AT&T’s network with hybrid cloud and AI technology from IBM. The companies specifically called out opportunities in manufacturing, health care, and the public sector. 

“In this amazingly dynamic market, it will continue to be vitally important for us to co-create with our customers alongside a strong ecosystem of collaborators. We are exploring innovations together with colleagues from across the industry, including IBM, Google, Salesforce, Samsung, Nokia, and others,” Chow said during her keynote. 

On the RAN front, Nokia this week said it’s working with AT&T to develop distributed massive MIMO, an advanced form of the radio antenna technology that will increase uplink capacity and speeds up to 90%. 

And it began field testing and deploying the Ericsson Street Radio 4402, a low- or mid-band 5G small cell that attaches to streetlights in about 15 minutes. 

Finally, AT&T inked a deal with Rakuten Symphony to deploy the Japanese company’s Site Manager, part of its recently rebranded Symworld platform, to quicken the design and workflows of wireless and wired networks.