AT&T Rapidly Expanding Vehicles Connected to Its Network

AT&T has 16 million vehicles connected to its network and is adding about a million monthly, said Jeff Stewart, assistant vice president-global public policy, Wednesday on a Telecommunications Industry Association webcast. Another 2.5 million connected fleet vehicles are on the network, he said. Stewart noted AT&T announced a partnership Tuesday with Ford, Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies to test cellular-vehicle to everything technology (C-V2X) in San Diego (see 1710310019). C-V2X is “a possible alternative technology” to dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) being offered by automakers, he said. “We’ll be looking at how cellular-V2X can function and if it meets the needs of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications,” he said. Another AT&T focus area is how cellular technology can be used to extend the 300-meter range of DSRC systems, warning drivers of an accident before they get to it on the road.