AT&T finally does something with its Project AirGig wireline internet thing

Project AirGig is a novel initiative from AT&T in which public power lines are used to guide millimeter wave data transmissions.

AT&T has been banging on about this for a while and at the start of this year took the brave step of announcing ‘advanced discussions’ on the matter. In hindsight even this claim seems to have been excessive since there has been radio silence (pardon the pun) for the 11 subsequent months.

Until now! Actually there seems to have ben one trial in that period and now AT&T is conducting a second domestic one – in Georgia – as well as an international trial. To be fair AT&T has been working on this tech for over a decade, so it’s not too shocking that progress remains gradual.

“Project AirGig is part of our ongoing effort to accelerate internet connections to a gig or more through both wired and wireless solutions,” said Andre Fuetsch, president, AT&T Labs and CTO. “But it also stands alone as a radically innovative solution to bridge the global digital divide. If these trials and our continued research and development turn out the way we intend, we’ll take a big step toward bringing hyper-fast connectivity to people everywhere.”

“AT&T has a long-history of connecting people with their world and is proud to be on the cutting-edge of innovation, now with Project AirGig trials,” said Bill Leahy, president of AT&T Georgia. “Governor Deal and legislative leadership have worked hard to create an environment that welcomes private investment and innovation, and the significant decision to conduct our national AirGig trial in Georgia is evidence of that. We appreciate our collaboration with Georgia Power and look forward to yet another way to deliver gigabit internet connections to consumers.”

But don’t get too excited just yet. AT&T is not committing to any timelines, even for the next stage of development, let alone for commercial deployment. But AT&T says it’s excited by what it has seen so far, so that’s nice. Here’s a vid from ages ago.