China Telecom and AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) have signed an agreement which seeks to renew the authorization for their joint venture that has been in existence for close to two decades – the Shanghai Symphony Telecommunications Co. Ltd.
With the agreement the two carriers are hoping the joint venture can carry on the work of serving the interests and needs of multinational firms that are operating in China. This is because with the agreement, the two carriers have pledged to develop new services meant to address the present and future needs of software-defined networking, voice over LTE roaming, big data that is cloud-based and Internet of Things.
New technologies
Some of the things that the two carriers have agreed to devote their resources to includes exploring the potential of voice over LTE roaming, creating bilateral roaming tests which had been earlier contemplated in a roaming agreement that had been previously executed to serve business customers and establishing the accelerated adoption of SDN industry standards.
“Working with AT&T, China Telecom is creating future business solutions that use enterprise mobility, cloud, IoT and other technologies.” China Telecom executive vice president and executive director, Gao Tongqing, said.
The chief executive officer of AT&T Business Solutions, Thaddeus Arroyo, added that the U.S. carrier’s relationship with China Telecom would assist multinational clients in having consistent access to advanced solutions that they require while operating in China.
Connecting rural America
Signing of the agreement between China Telecom and AT&T comes at a time when the U.S. wireless carrier has expanded its fixed wireless internet coverage to over 70,000 locations spread across nine states. Expansion of the service begun in Georgia two months ago and has since then been rolled out to other underserved and rural areas of Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, Florida and Alabama.
The development is part of the Connect America Fund of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission where $1.5 billion was awarded to 10 operators in order to expand connectivity to low-income and rural areas of the United States.
On Tuesday shares of AT&T Inc fell by 1.18% to close the day at $37.70.
