AT&T has announced plans to acquire Straight Path Communications, a company that holds a nationwide portfolio of millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum, in a transaction valued at approximately $1.6 billion.
This acquisition builds on AT&T’s earlier purchase of FiberTower and strengthens the company’s mmWave holdings, which include licenses in the 39 GHz and 28 GHz bands. Adding Straight Path’s spectrum will support AT&T’s 5G strategy and help accelerate deployment of advanced services for consumers and businesses, such as virtual and augmented reality experiences, telemedicine, autonomous vehicles, smart city applications, and other low-latency, high-bandwidth use cases.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, standards-based 5G operating in mmWave bands can achieve theoretical peak speeds up to 10 Gbps for uplink and up to 20 Gbps for downlink. AT&T has already demonstrated early 5G capabilities: in October 2016, AT&T and Ericsson conducted one of the first known 5G demonstrations using mmWave radio access technology, and in February 2017 AT&T and Nokia delivered DIRECTV NOW over a fixed wireless 5G connection using 39 GHz mmWave equipment. Those milestones illustrate the potential of mmWave spectrum to support future high-capacity networks.
This deal is one of several recent partnerships and initiatives AT&T has announced to expand its IoT, smart cities, and connected vehicle efforts. Last month the company reached an agreement with IDA Ireland and Dublin City Council to collaborate and share information on smart city solutions. AT&T also entered a long-term partnership with members of Bridge Alliance to extend its global connected car capabilities to new markets. In the same period, AT&T partnered with Avnet to help designers develop and produce next-generation Internet of Things devices with global cellular connectivity. That collaboration enables Avnet to integrate AT&T’s cloud application development services, supported by platforms such as AT&T M2X and AT&T Flow Designer, to streamline device-to-cloud solutions.