AT&T on Monday carried out a live LTE broadcast trial at the first ever U.S. college football playoff final, hosted at AT&T stadium, Texas.
The telco announced plans to conduct the trial last week, saying it represented an opportunity to test the distribution of a broad range of content to customers without compromising network performance.
For instan ce, fans attending the game could access live video feeds, such as footage from a player’s helmet camera, provided they have a compatible device. AT&T plans to share the results of the trial at a later date.
"This trial demonstration signifies the early stages of our foray into LTE broadcast, but we see a promising future for this technology," said AT&T, pointing to services like pushing out software updates to not just smartphones but other connected devices like cars, for example. It could also enable new services based a one-to-many model.
It is not just AT&T that is interested in LTE broadcast; the technology has captured the attention of several big industry players.
AT&T’s closest rival, Verizon, plans to launch LTE broadcast this year and is in the process of building a portfolio of exclusive content.
EE is pushing on with LTE broadcast in the U.K., while Telstra is doing likewise in Australia.
