AT&T and Microsoft partner to provide new offerings in 5G and AI

Collaboration will deliver cloud solutions for voice, conferencing, networking and more

Elly Yates-Roberts | 18 July 2019

Telecommunications company AT&T and Microsoft have agreed a new partnership to provide new offerings in artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and the cloud. The multi-year collaboration will deliver new customer offerings built on AT&T’s network and Microsoft’s Azure cloud.

Microsoft will be AT&T’s preferred cloud provider for non-network applications, as part of the company’s public cloud-first strategy and will support AT&T as it consolidates its data centre infrastructure and operations.

In turn, AT&T will provide its workforce with cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools on Microsoft 365, and will migrate non-network infrastructure applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

“AT&T is at the forefront of defining how advances in technology, including 5G and edge computing, will transform every aspect of work and life,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. “The world’s leading companies run on our cloud, and we are delighted that AT&T chose Microsoft to accelerate its innovation. Together, we will apply the power of Azure and Microsoft 365 to transform the way AT&T’s workforce collaborates and to shape the future of media and communications for people everywhere.”

AT&T was the first to introduce mobile 5G in the US and plans to spread the technology nationwide by 2020. Microsoft will use AT&T’s 5G network to design, test and build edge-computing capabilities that will ultimately enable devices to process data faster.

The global scale of Microsoft’s Azure cloud and AT&T’s 5G capabilities hope to provide unique solutions for the companies’ mutual customers, for example in voice, collaboration and conferencing, intelligent edge and networking, the internet of things, public safety and cyber security.

“AT&T and Microsoft are among the most committed companies fostering technology that serves people,” said John Donovan, CEO of AT&T. “By working together on common efforts around 5G, the cloud and AI, we will accelerate the speed of innovation and impact for our customers and our communities.”