AT&T claims U.S. industry first with RedCap launch

AT&T claims it is the first carrier in the U.S. to introduce 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) technology for the IoT sector, with commercial service now available in select areas of the Dallas metro area. The service was launched on June 14 via a software upgrade from Ericsson, but AT&T is working with both Ericsson and Nokia on its RedCap rollout, according to Jason Sikes, AVP of Device Architecture at AT&T. RedCap stands for “reduced capability,” which sounds like something’s gone missing, but it actually refers to reduced complexity and therefore, reduced costs. Introduced with 3GPP Release 17, it also sports power-saving features. But, it’s still early days. No customers are using RedCap on AT&T’s network. AT&T is making its 5G standalone/RedCap network available now so that chipset and module suppliers can come in and get their devices certified to work on AT&T’s network.