AT&T claims spot on HomeGrid board

AT&T has become a Promoter Member of the HomeGrid Forum, and will serve on the group’s board of directors, a move which further formalizes the carrier’s past interest in the international home networking standard.

The news may not be that much of a surprise, given that the U.S. telco giant showed support for G.hn as far back as 2009, saying the technology held promise for self-installed triple play services. It is not the first carrier to join the forum’s board of directors, as BT and Spain’s Telefonica also have board representation.

Tom Starr, lead member of the Technical Staff at AT&T and a telecom industry expert, will serve as the AT&T representative on the board. Starr is also the chairman of the ITU-T working groups, which developed the G.hn standard, and chairman of the Broadband Forum. Vernon Reed, Lead Member of Technical Staff of AT&T Labs in Austin, Tex., will serve as an alternate HomeGrid board member.

G.hn backers gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, last week for what was scheduled to be the sector’s first interoperability plugfest. The HomeGrid Forum also recently approved usage of multiple input/multiple output technology with the G.hn standard.