Wireless carrier AT&T Inc. is stepping up its “internet of things” game by teaming up with communications firm Ericsson AB to offer what it calls expanded services capabilities.

The announcement follows the launch of AT&T’s IoT professional services back in January 2017, which covers application solutions, consulting services, device lifecycle solutions and managed services and support. Through the partnership with Ericsson, AT&T will offer Global Device Certification for IoT devices, and provide testing, verification and white-glove assistance with regulatory approval in more than 150 countries.

In a blog post, AT&T highlighted the success of one of its first customers, the smart water meter company Badger Meter Inc., which is using its network and professional services to “certify water meter devices as it expands into new global markets.” The companies said AT&T reduced the regulatory complexity for Badger Meter, allowing it to focus on growing its business.

“AT&T has been with us since the start — connecting our people, processes and things,” said Badger Meter’s vice president of sales Kim Stoll. “The team is helping to speed up the device certification process and decrease our costs and time to market.”

AT&T also announced it has begun testing a new edge network at its AT&T Foundry in Palo Alto, California. The company said it has teamed up with GridRaster Inc. to test augmented reality and virtual reality experiences on mobile devices using its “low-latency edge cloud.” The AT&T Foundry was opened last November as a test lab for technologies such as autonomous vehicles, drones, AR and VR.

“We’re working directly with developers, startups and third-party innovators to solve the latency dilemma that limits many existing AR/VR applications,” said Vishy Gopalakrishnan, vice president of ecosystem and innovation at AT&T.

Image: Mike Mozart/Flickr