BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Two companies with extensive history in infrastructure and communications technology are teaming up to help accelerate the digital era of urban development. AT&T* (NYSE:T) and Current, powered by GE (NYSE:GE), have announced an exclusive agreement to connect cities across the United States and Mexico to the Internet of Things (IoT). Together, the companies will unlock a realm of possibilities to improve the way cities operate, communicate and meet the needs of citizens.
Since launching its Smart Cities organization in 2015, AT&T has been using its resources and IoT expertise to create impactful solutions for cities. With its smart cities framework as the foundation, for the past year AT&T has been helping cities develop and implement a holistic smart cities strategy to address their current and future needs. The agreement with Current significantly extends AT&T's smart city services, plus opens new revenue opportunities for the company. By introducing GE's Predix-powered IoT platform, AT&T can use outdoor LED lighting in a city to create a digital infrastructure that helps address issues like traffic flow and parking optimization, gunshot detection on city streets, air quality monitoring and weather emergency alerts.
"Intelligent lighting plays a huge role in a smart city," said Chris Penrose, president, Internet of Things Solutions, AT&T. "Our collaboration with Current will enable us to use a city's existing lighting infrastructure to more securely connect sensor-enabled networks. This will put them on the path to becoming a smarter, more sustainable city."
The two companies have collaborated before. Current, GE's digital industrial startup business, recently announced a deal with the City of San Diego to upgrade thousands of the city's outdoor light fixtures to sensor-enabled LED technology, making it the world's largest smart city IoT platform. AT&T will act as the data carrier and provide highly secure connectivity for the San Diego deployment, which is expected to save the city approximately $2.4 million in annual energy costs. In addition, the deal builds on AT&T's membership in GE's Digital Alliance program, where it serves as a connectivity-as-a-service collaborator for GE's Predix platform.
"We are thrilled to expand Current's relationship with AT&T to help cities redefine the civic engagement model—our digital network is based on an open platform, which allows entrepreneurs, incubators and students to get involved in the future development smart city applications," said John Gordon, Chief Digital Officer of Current, powered by GE. "AT&T has a long history of working commercially with municipalities, and our technology will be a perfect fit toward helping more cities unleash the limitless potential of the Industrial Internet."
For more than 100 years, AT&T has formed strong relationships with cities across the United States. The company's Smart Cities initiative is bringing connectivity to spotlight cities across the nation—helping these cities become cleaner, safer and more efficient. And secure AT&T network connectivity and IoT platforms like AT&T M2X and AT&T Flow Designer continue to foster IoT innovation around the globe.
"Innovation is at the core of who we are—and what we do," said Mike Zeto, general manager, AT&T Smart Cities. "AT&T and GE are the companies that modernized the telephone and light bulb. Together, we will usher in a new digital frontier, giving cities and citizens alike the benefits of a connected city."
Current, which combines energy technology like LED and solar with sensors and software, aims to help customers like cities, commercial buildings and industrial facilities slash energy costs and create intelligent environments. Its platform enables a wide variety of developers to create new applications that could improve safety, productivity, energy efficiency and other issues that impact municipal, commercial and industrial customers.
"Our goal is to bring the combined power of GE and AT&T to municipalities in a way that pulls from the best of both worlds," Current's Gordon said. "We are two companies with more than a century of success in solving big problems, and we believe our combined innovation can help build a better world."
*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.
About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions around the globe connect with leading entertainment, business, mobile and high speed internet services. We offer the nation's best data network* and the best global coverage of any U.S. wireless provider.** We're one of the world's largest providers of pay TV. We have TV customers in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries. Nearly 3.5 million companies, from small to large businesses around the globe, turn to AT&T for our highly secure smart solutions.
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*Claim based on the Nielsen Certified Data Network Score. Score includes data reported by wireless consumers in the Nielsen Mobile Insights survey, network measurements from Nielsen Mobile Performance and Nielsen Drive Test Benchmarks for Q3+Q4 2016 across 121 markets.
**Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; and voice roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. International service required. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries.
About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) is the world's Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com
SOURCE AT&T Inc.
