AT&T Expands 5G RedCap Coverage: Will it Drive Sustainable Growth?
It is getting popular in multiple domains such as consumer devices like smartwatches, XR devices, industrial IoT devices like sensors, smart meters, healthcare, fleet and asset tracking devices. Per Market Research Intellect, 5G RedCap technology market is projected to grow at a 25% compound annual growth rate between the period of 2024 and 2033.
The technology is emerging as a game-changing connectivity layer for mid-tier devices. AT&T has been steadily advancing its 5G RedCap ecosystem to capitalize on this emerging market trend. The company recently announced that its 5G RedCap, built on a 5G Standalone network, now covers 200 million people across the country. Such comprehensive nationwide coverage is a major milestone, making AT&T's 5G network an essential enabler of the next generation of AI-powered IoT innovation and deployment in the United States.
Franklin Wireless RG350, a mobile hotspot powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X35 5G Modem-RF System, is the first commercially approved RedCap product to be used on AT&T's network. The company is collaborating with Samtech, Telit Cinterion and Rhino Mobility to check and certify their module as RedCap compatible and foster advancement in the IoT device ecosystem.
How Are Competitors Faring?
AT&T faces competition from T-Mobile US, Inc. TMUS and Verizon Communications, Inc. VZ in this market. T-Mobile is also advancing RedCap technology infrastructure nationwide in 2025. The company emphasizes that its technology efficiently reduces power consumption without compromising service quality. T-Mobile's effort to extend its 5G beyond legacy mobile services can pose a challenge to AT&T.
Verizon is witnessing healthy 5G traction. Its 5G mobility service offers an unmatched experience that impacts industries as diverse as public safety, health care, retail and sports. The company has collaborated with Ericsson and MediaTek to conduct trials for RedCap technology. However, Verizon is playing a catch-up game with its U.S. competitors, T-Mobile and AT&T, in RedCap commercialization.
T's Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
AT&T has gained 41% over the past year compared with the Wireless National industry's growth of 18.4%.
Going by the price/book ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 12.58 forward earnings, lower than 12.96 of the industry but above its mean of 10.96.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Earnings estimates for 2025 and 2026 have remained unchanged for the past 60 days.
AT&T currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see t the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here..
5 Stocks Set to Double
Each was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the favorite stock to gain +100% or more in the months ahead. They include
Stock #1: A Disruptive Force with Notable Growth and Resilience
Stock #2: Bullish Signs Signaling to Buy the Dip
Stock #3: One of the Most Compelling Investments in the Market
Stock #4: Leader In a Red-Hot Industry Poised for Growth
Stock #5: Modern Omni-Channel Platform Coiled to Spring
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +171%, +209% and +232%.
Download Atomic Opportunity: Nuclear Energy's Comeback free today.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
AT&T Inc. (T): Free Stock Analysis Report
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ): Free Stock Analysis Report
T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS): Free Stock Analysis Report
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
11 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Why Globe Life Stock Was a Winner Today
Key Points An analyst upgraded her recommendation on the stock. She now feels it's a buy. 10 stocks we like better than Globe Life › Insurance conglomerate Globe Life (NYSE: GL) was a safe bet of a stock on Friday, as investors snapped it up following a bullish analyst move. With that tailwind at its back, Globe Life closed the day nearly 3% higher in price, easily beating the 0.4% increase of the S&P 500 index. CFRA now feels the stock is a buy That move was made by CFRA analyst Catherine Seifert, who upgraded her Globe Life recommendation to buy from her previous hold. She accompanied this with a significant price-target increase to $155 per share from the preceding $130. According to reports, Seifert's change was due to two recent developments -- the second-quarter results Globe Life posted on Wednesday and the resolution of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation. The probe, which concluded on Thursday with the SEC electing not to recommend enforcement action against the company, concerned allegations from short seller reports alleging fraud at both the company and its subsidiary, American Income Life. As for the Q2 earnings, the analyst was cheered by management providing encouraging guidance on anticipated reserve releases in its current Q3 and in the following frame. She also waxed optimistic about the development of underwriting in certain categories, such as mortality. A solid second quarter Those earnings, published on Wednesday, were encouraging in many respects. Globe Life managed to boost its revenue by nearly 3% year over year to $1.48 billion. Although net income was down slightly (by 2%), it beat the consensus analyst estimate. Put another way, it's business as usual for the insurer, and in that rather conservative industry, that's a heartening development. Should you invest $1,000 in Globe Life right now? Before you buy stock in Globe Life, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Globe Life wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,774!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,064,942!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,040% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025
Globe and Mail
11 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Why Curaleaf Stock Surged 13% Higher Today
Key Points A letter sent by a clutch of attorneys general to congressional leaders made a case for banking reform for the marijuana industry. Lack of access to basic financial services has been quite a hindrance for the business. 10 stocks we like better than Curaleaf › A new political push for marijuana law reform had an intoxicating effect on Curaleaf (OTC: CURLF) stock as the trading week came to an end. On Friday, the multi-state operator (MSO) was quite the buzzy title on the exchange, with investors boosting its share price by 13% on the day. That compared quite favorably to the minor (0.4%) gain of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) at market close. Banking on change Late on Thursday, a group of 32 attorneys general from U.S. states and territories sent a letter to congressional leaders imploring them to pass a marijuana banking bill. The Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act would allow cannabis businesses to access basic financial services; as the drug is illegal at the federal (if not necessarily the state) level, they are currently barred from these. Many are consequently forced to operate on a cash-only basis, which increases the risks of crime. In the letter, the attorneys general wrote, "As more states continue to consider and implement legalization efforts, the lack of access to America's financial system by cannabis businesses -- which is a direct result of federal banking law -- presents a considerable safety issue for the public." Democrats and Republicans alike Reflecting the broad support marijuana legalization enjoys among the general American public, the 32 attorneys general -- from locales such as Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and Georgia -- are a bipartisan group. While it remains to be seen what, if any, effect their letter has on the rather slow-moving Congressional pot reform efforts, it's good for the weed industry that there continues to be pressure for change. Should you invest $1,000 in Curaleaf right now? Before you buy stock in Curaleaf, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Curaleaf wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,774!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,064,942!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,040% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025
CTV News
11 minutes ago
- CTV News
Meta is shelling out big bucks to get ahead in AI. Here's who it's hiring
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg looks on before the luncheon on the inauguration day of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term in Washington, U.S., January 20. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters/File via CNN Newsource) New York — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission for his company to be the first to reach so-called artificial superintelligence — generally considered to mean AI that's better than all humans at all knowledge work. It's a nebulous and likely far-out concept that some analysts say may not immediately benefit the company's core business. Yet Zuckerberg is shelling out huge sums to build an all-star team of researchers and engineers to beat OpenAI and other rivals to it. Zuckerberg's recruiting spree, which has reportedly included multimillion-dollar pay packages to lure top talent away from key rivals, has kicked off a talent race within the AI industry. Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed Meta was offering his employees US$100 million signing bonuses to switch companies. And just this week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was asked during an earnings call about his company's status in the AI talent war, a sign that Wall Street is now also invested in the competition. The stakes are high for Zuckerberg — after Meta's pivot to the metaverse fell flat, he's reoriented the company around AI in hopes of being a leader in the next transformational technology wave. The company has invested billions in data centers and chips to power its AI ambitions that it's now under pressure to deliver on. Unlike other tech giants, Meta doesn't have a cloud computing business to generate immediate revenue from those infrastructure investments. And the company is coming from somewhat behind competitors, after reported delays in releasing the largest version of its new Llama 4 AI model. 'That's the Llama 4 lesson: You can have hundreds of thousands of (GPU chips), but if you don't have the right team developing the model, it doesn't matter,' said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria. But more than anything, Zuckerberg appears to be in a circle of Silicon Valley 'AI maximalists' that believe the technology will change everything about how we live and work. Becoming a leader in the space is essential to Meta and other companies whose leaders follow that line of thinking, Luria said. 'For our superintelligence effort, I'm focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry,' Zuckerberg said in a Threads post earlier this month. Meta last month invested $14.3 billion in data labeling startup Scale AI. Scale founder and then-CEO Alexandr Wang joined the social media giant as part of the deal, along with several of Scale's other top employees. Wang is now leading the new Meta Superintelligence Labs team, along with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. 'My job is to make amazing AI products that billions of people love to use,' Friedman said in an X post earlier this month. 'It won't happen overnight, but a few days in, I'm feeling confident that great things are ahead.' On Friday, Zuckerberg announced that Shengjia Zhao, one of the co-creators of ChatGPT who Meta hired away from OpenAI several weeks ago, will be chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Zhao will 'set the research agenda and scientific direction' for the team, Zuckerberg said. (Meta's existing chief scientist, Yann LeCun, who has been with the company for more than a decade, will remain in his position leading the company's Fundamental AI Research team, a spokesperson confirmed.) In recent weeks, Meta has also attracted top researchers and engineers from Apple, Google and Anthropic. Multiple news outlets, including Bloomberg, Wired and The Verge, have reported that Meta has, in some cases, offered pay packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars to new AI hires. It's a sign of just how far Zuckerberg is willing to go in his quest to win the AI superintelligence race, although the Meta chief has pushed back on some of the reporting around the compensation figures. It is with that mission that Meta's new team will be working to build superintelligence. Here are some of the most prominent recent hires to the team. This list was compiled based on public statements, social media profiles and posts, and news reports, and may not be exhaustive. Meta declined to comment on this story. Zuckerberg's drive to get ahead on AI may be rooted in part in his desire to own a foundational platform for the next major technology wave. Meta lost the race to control the operating systems for the mobile web era in the early 2000s and 2010s, which Apple and Google won. In recent years, he has not been shy about expressing his frustration with having to pay fees to app store operators and comply with their policies. Meta recently partnered with Amazon Web Services on a program to support startups that want to build on its Llama AI model, in an effort to make its technology essential to businesses emerging during the AI boom. Although AI has benefitted Meta's core advertising business, some analysts question how Zuckerberg's quest for 'superintelligence' will benefit the company. Emarketer senior analyst Minda Smiley said she expects Meta executives to face tough questions during the company's earnings call next week about how its superintelligence ambitions 'align with the company's broader business roadmap.' 'Its attempts to directly compete with the likes of OpenAI … are proving to be more challenging for the company while costing it billions of dollars,' Smiley said. But as its core business continues to grow rapidly, Meta has the money to spend to build its team and 'steal' from rivals, said CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino. And, at least for now, investors seem to be here for it — the company's shares have risen around 20 per cent since the start of this year. And if Zuckerberg succeeds with his vision, it could propel Meta far beyond a social media company. 'I think Mark's in a manifest destiny point of his career,' said Zack Kass, an AI consultant and former OpenAI go-to-market lead. 'He always wants to point to Facebook groups as being this way that he is connecting the world … And if he can build superintelligence that cures cancer, he doesn't have to talk about Facebook groups anymore as being his like lasting legacy.' By Clare Duffy, CNN
