Microsoft Is Finally Acquiring AT&T’s Network Cloud Business

It was revealed on Thursday that Microsoft would be acquiring AT&T’s Network Cloud business under a new deal that will see Azure handle the complete traffic of AT&T’s 5G traffic.

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In 2019, Microsoft and AT&T had announced that a $2 billion partnership was taking place that would focus on AI, 5G, as well as the varying network operations in the cloud, in what, at the time, AT&T dubbed its ‘public cloud first’ strategy of operation.

Two years later, however, AT&T has announced that it would be moving its 5G network to the Microsoft cloud, which would result in all of its traffic being managed via Microsoft Azure technologies.

AT&T’s 5G core would be the first to be shifted to the cloud, after which the rest of  AT&T’sexisting network cloud would be ported to Azure over a span of the next three years.

What Do We Know About the Deal

As part of this deal, Microsoft will also be acquiring AT&T’s carrier-grade Network Cloud platform technology, with the company stating that the move would result in a reduction of its operating costs as well as allow them to leverage a wider ecosystem of software developers creating more and newer 5G solutions.

In terms of Microsoft, the move will result in the enhancement of Azure for operators offering that the company hopes to expand to telcos on a global level.