AT&T and Cradlepoint Team up on Wireless WAN and a 5G Future

According to a recent announcement, AT&T and Cradlepoint are expanding their relationship to make it easier for enterprise and public safety customers to purchase end-to-end wireless wide-area network (WAN) solutions. Under the new agreement, customers reportedly can now order Cradlepoint wireless edge solutions and have them fulfilled and billed directly from AT&T.

The companies said that customers will be able to purchase select Cradlepoint wireless routers with AT&T's LTE service along with an optional AT&T Wireless Broadband (AWB) data plan. Public safety and other frontline emergency services organizations reportedly can purchase Cradlepoint FirstNet Ready wireless routers with a FirstNet service data plan.

“In recent months, we have witnessed more businesses and public safety agencies than ever deploying wireless WAN solutions on AT&T LTE networks in response to the global health crisis,” said Robert Boyanovsky, VP, Enterprise Mobility, AT&T Business. “This surge in demand underscores the agility, flexibility, and speed of deployment that only wireless can deliver. It also provides validation of our expanded relationship with Cradlepoint that will make it easier for customers to acquire end-to-end wireless WAN solutions from AT&T.”

Built-in Pathway to 5G

AT&T and Cradlepoint also said in the release that they are setting up to make it easier for customers to embrace a Gigabit LTE-based wireless WAN today while getting on the path to 5G with a simple and seamless add-on when and where needed. In the future, the expanded collaboration reportedly will enable an enterprise customer to upgrade to AT&T 5G by adding a 5G Wideband Adapter to any Cradlepoint 5G Ready or 5G Optimized wireless router via an Ethernet connection.