AT&T's $48.5 billion purchase of DIRECTV will give it the edge over U.S. rival Verizon in the roll-out of the next generation of cellular technology, AT&T's strategy chief said on Monday. So-called 5G wireless networks are expected to offer 1,000-fold gains in capacity over existing networks, giving the potential to connect at least 100 billion devices with download speeds that can reach 10 gigabits per second .