AT&T’s new AI-based Wi-Fi personalization prioritizes home internet traffic

AT&T is rolling out a new AI feature called Wi-Fi Personalization that prioritizes home Wi-Fi traffic based on what you’re doing, which could lead to increased performance while gaming, streaming, and video conferencing. It is an automatic feature of “converged” AT&T customers (Subscribe to both Home fiber and Mobile phone service), as well as those who have them All Fi Pro Plans.

“We have to pay attention to the details around Wi-Fi performance, so we wanted to really look at the next level we could take Wi-Fi,” said Josh Goodell, AT&T’s vice president of broadband and converged product management.

Wi-Fi personalization identifies the types of internet traffic that are most important at different times of the day, such as video calls during the day and late-night gaming.

“It’s learning the rhythm of the network, and it will become more performant over time,” Goodell said.

He noted that traffic is prioritized at the application level, which is different from how home network devices typically organize data based on the device being used. For example, your TV and iPad running Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube TV will be classified as streaming video and prioritized before other traffic during times when streaming is typically active.

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This feature is software based and is automatically activated on AT&T Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6 gateways, though they will only work on equipment the carrier provides to subscribers. Goodell says it works with most modems currently available from AT&T and doesn’t require new hardware. If you use your own device to provide Wi-Fi, e.g Ero or TP-Link System, the feature is not available.

Wi-Fi customization is added at no additional cost to subscribers. Because it looks at traffic, it begs the inevitable question of what AT&T can do with usage data.

The AI ​​processing only takes place on the Wi-Fi gateway, and personal details don’t leave the home, Goodell said. AT&T also never sees specific content. “We have no desire to monetize any data as part of this. It’s all about improving performance,” he said, noting that privacy remains top of mind for customers.

Although automatic Wi-Fi personalization is enabled, a control in AT&T’s Smart Home Manager app allows you to pause the feature or manually prioritize traffic types. For example, Goodell mentioned entertaining the family during college football games. He can go into the app and set the feature to prioritize streaming to ensure the best performance while watching the game.

AT&T’s gateways already scan traffic 500 million times a day, Goodell said. AI analyzes historical patterns rather than adjusting traffic in real time based on demand.

Read more: AT&T recently boosted the performance of its 5G wireless networkThanks to their nice EchoStar purchase.