AUSTIN, Texas — On the eighth floor of its laboratory building at the Arboretum, AT&T Inc. has built eight copper-sheathed rooms for testing all sorts of yet-to-be-released wireless products, including netbooks and GPS devices, to make sure they will work well with the phone giant's wireless networks.
AT&T says the testing rooms are part of what is needed to get ready for an expected explosion of wireless products, beyond cell phones, that will use its networks.
The new wireless lab in Austin is the only place AT&T tests wireless devices. It tests its wireless networks at a lab in Redmond, Wash.
The Austin lab is another sign of how seriously AT&T takes the wireless data business. Thanks to its exclusive arrangement with Apple's iPhone, AT&T has the busiest cell phone data network in the country, which has meant billions of dollars in new wireless revenue.
In the second quarter, the $11.9 billion in wireless was the single biggest source of AT&T's revenue, accounting for almost 40 percent of the total.
But smart phones are only the start.
The company says the flood of new wireless products that could mean new traffic on its network could include mobile medical tracking systems, electronic readers, smart utility meters, portable game terminals, vending machines, home security monitors and personal navigation devices.
All of them could be good for AT&T's business.
Steve Harbin, AT&T's director of subscriber product engineering, says his lab can test network compatibility and data performance for lots of new products. The testing rooms need to be sheathed in copper to block interference from existing cell phone networks in the area and to make sure the wireless products don't interfere with commercial cell phone traffic.
AT&T already has tested more than 1,000 wireless products that aren't cell phones in its labs and expects to test thousands more.
Some of those products are clothed in secrecy — literally wrapped up — to keep them safe from prying eyes of potential competitors. Confidentiality is a watchword for lab workers.
"When you get a real cool device in for testing, you have to exercise restraint not to tell people what is going on," Harbin said.
The Austin lab also tests video transmission for the company's U-verse television/broadband service and human factors — or usability — for a wide range of devices and services the company offers.
There are about 175 workers at the Austin lab. Companywide, AT&T has about 1,300 employees of labs in New Jersey, California and Washington state, in addition to Austin.
The company's testing of the usability of cell phones has spurred more cell phone manufacturers to do their own human factors testing, said Jeff Brandt, a researcher in that lab.
Human factors testing can turn into savings for the company. During the early days of AT&T's broadband DSL Internet access service, the lab extensively tested and helped with modifications on kits that allowed customers to install their own DSL.
Making those kits easy to use saved AT&T about $450 million a year by reducing the need for the company to send technicians to customers' homes, Brandt said.
The company says one new technology it keeps testing is two-way video communications by cell phone. Some phones already can handle one-way video transmissions. But AT&T says it won't introduce a two-way video service until both its wireless networks and the phones that use it are ready.
Kirk Ladendorf writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: kladendorf(at)statesman.com.