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Telecommunications • Industrial IoT Partnership

AT&T Business Solutions

Scaling Industrial IoT Connectivity Across 500+ Enterprise Customers

AT&T

Project Overview

Duration
18 months (ongoing)
Deployment Scope
500+ enterprise sites
Network
AT&T 4G LTE / FirstNet
Sectors
Manufacturing, Logistics, Energy
500+
Enterprise Sites
99.97%
Network Uptime
3 days
Avg Deploy Time
40%
TCO Reduction

!The Challenge

AT&T's enterprise sales teams faced a critical gap in their IoT portfolio: customers needed turnkey solutions for connecting industrial equipment—CNC machines, HVAC systems, compressors, and PLCs—without the complexity of traditional SCADA systems or the cost of dedicated fiber installations.

The existing approaches presented significant barriers:

  • Wired connectivity required 4-6 week lead times for fiber provisioning and cost $15,000-50,000 per site
  • Traditional cellular routers lacked industrial protocol support (Modbus RTU/TCP, EtherNet/IP, BACnet)
  • IT/OT integration required specialized engineering resources customers didn't have
  • Cloud platform fragmentation meant managing multiple vendors for hardware, connectivity, and software
4-6 weeks
Traditional deployment timeline
$35K+
Average per-site cost
3+ vendors
Required for full solution

The Solution

AT&T partnered with MachineCDN to create "AT&T Industrial IoT Connect"—a white-labeled, turnkey solution combining Teltonika RUT956 industrial gateways with pre-configured AT&T SIM cards and MachineCDN's Azure-hosted cloud platform. The solution was designed for sub-3-day deployment with zero IT involvement required.

Technical Architecture

Edge Layer
  • • Teltonika RUT956 gateway
  • • Dual SIM (primary + failover)
  • • RS485/Modbus RTU converter
  • • 4x digital I/O channels
  • • Industrial temp range (-40°C to 75°C)
Connectivity
  • • AT&T 4G LTE Cat 6 (300 Mbps)
  • • FirstNet Band 14 support
  • • Private APN with static IP
  • • IPsec VPN to Azure
  • • TLS 1.3 encryption
Cloud Platform
  • • Azure IoT Hub (East US 2)
  • • Time-series data in InfluxDB
  • • Grafana dashboards
  • • REST API for integrations
  • • MQTT/OPC-UA protocols

Supported Protocols & Equipment

Modbus RTU (RS485) & Modbus TCP
EtherNet/IP for Allen-Bradley PLCs
BACnet MS/TP for HVAC systems
SNMP v2c/v3 for network devices
OPC-UA client/server mode
Direct I/O for discrete sensors
MQTT for edge-to-cloud messaging
Siemens S7 protocol support

Implementation Process

Day 1
Site Survey & Gateway Provisioning
Customer provides equipment list. MachineCDN pre-configures gateway with Modbus register maps, AT&T SIM activation, and Azure IoT Hub device provisioning. Gateway ships same-day via FedEx Priority.
Day 2-3
Physical Installation
Gateway arrives on-site. Customer or local electrician mounts DIN-rail gateway, connects RS485/Ethernet to equipment, and powers on. Auto-provisioning connects to cloud within 5 minutes.
Day 3
Dashboard Configuration
MachineCDN support configures Grafana dashboards, alert thresholds (email/SMS), and provides customer admin portal access. Training webinar scheduled for operations team.
Ongoing
Managed Support
24/7 NOC monitoring, automatic firmware updates (quarterly), cellular data usage alerts, and 4-hour SLA for critical issues.

Measured Results

After 18 months, AT&T Industrial IoT Connect has been deployed to 500+ enterprise sites across manufacturing, food & beverage, and energy sectors. Key metrics tracked via the MachineCDN platform:

Deployment Metrics

Sites deployed512
Total devices connected2,847
Average deployment time2.7 days
Failed installations0.4%

Performance Metrics

Network uptime (SLA: 99.9%)99.97%
Data latency (p95)<200ms
Monthly data per gateway~450 MB
Support tickets/site/year0.8

Customer ROI (Median)

40%
TCO reduction vs. wired
67%
Faster time-to-deploy
$8.2K
Saved per site (Year 1)
4.2 mo
Average payback period
"The MachineCDN partnership solved a critical gap in our industrial portfolio. Our enterprise customers were asking for a simpler path to OT visibility—not another complex IT project. The 3-day deployment and predictable pricing model makes it an easy yes for operations teams who need data without the infrastructure headaches."
LW
Lee Wagner
Vice President, AT&T Business IoT Solutions

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