AT&T May Be Indirectly Involved in the Cloud Gaming Industry

AT&T Inc. is a Delaware-registered American multinational telecoms holding company that is the world's biggest telecommunications business and the leading supplier of mobile telephone services in the United States. It was previously claimed that the corporation may establish a cloud gaming company, but it seems that plans have changed.

AT&T Interested in Cloud Gaming

AT&T has been dangling an enticing potential for months: what if its network allowed you to quickly sample blockbuster games for free? The business began by indiscriminately combining complimentary six-month Google Stadia memberships and then began allowing its customers to watch complete copies of Batman: Arkham Knight and Control over the internet. Then it hinted at something even more intriguing: a try-before-you-purchase gaming service in which you could test a game straight from a search result, buy and download a complete copy after you've decided you like it, and start up where you left off.

There is currently no such thing as a cloud gaming service. However, after contacting with the individual in charge of these AT&T efforts, we learnt that AT&T has no plans to establish such a thing. In truth, the company's tests do not hint to a cloud gaming business.

So, what does AT&T want from cloud gaming? The task was to collaborate with gaming firms to see how the network might best suit their requirements. This includes not just radio performance but also optimized pathways for all data traversing the network, reducing the time it takes to transit "from the mobile core to where the apps are," among other hops.

A little appreciated point concerning cloud gaming is that a fast download speed connection is insufficient. Far more crucial is latency – the time it takes for your button click to go to a distant server, move your game character, and return to your screen. According to a spokesman, AT&T has learnt that consistency in both speed and latency is required for cloud gaming as well as cloud phone clone transfers, and that consistency has "certainly held down cellular networks." That is what the corporation is attempting with these public testing.

And there, AT&T may have an idea for drastically improving consistency, but it's a potentially contentious one. The business has been testing changes to its quality-of-service model in order to "ensure resources are assigned to clients who are utilizing a cloud gaming app." In other words, AT&T might prefer cloud gaming above other types of data, which would violate net neutrality rules. (Net neutrality is mainly dead in the United States, but it is alive and well in California, and it may be making a comeback nationwide.)

However, AT&T has only tested this internally in the lab and in the field. There are now no plans to commercialize, although it might be a future goal for the firm.