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Regular consumers in ten key cities will finally have access to 5G after AT&T’s turn on
American wireless giant AT&T today announced the activation of a new low-band 5G network in ten cities across the USA. These locations – Indianapolis; San Diego; San Francisco; San Jose; Los Angeles; Milwaukee; Pittsburgh; Birmingham, Alabama; Providence, Rhode Island and Rochester, New York – are the first to see the AT&T network become widely available to the general public.
AT&T’s current 5G network, called ‘5G Plus’, is based on millimetre-waves and has reached impressive speeds of over 1 Gbps. However, this higher frequency network has had trouble penetrating obstacles, such as walls, windows, and plants, and has thus far been limited to developers and businesses.
The activation of this new low-band 5G network will negate this limitation, allowing access to people to working outdoors as well as in buildings. However, unlike rival T-Mobile who activated a similar network earlier this month, AT&T have made no speed promises for the new network, which operates on the company’s 850 Mhz spectrum.
Kevin Petersen, senior vice president of AT&T Mobility, commented that the speeds of these networks upon launch will be “on par” with what AT&T 4G LTE users currently receive on its 5GE network.
Customers will require an upgrade to their existing plan to gain access to the new 5G network as well as a compatible mobile phone device; the new Galaxy Note is the first phone capable of utilising the network.
This announcement marks the first stage of AT&T’s national roll-out of 5G. The company said that it will “soon” be activating the network in the next group of cities across the country, including Boston, Bridgeport, Las Vegas, Louisville, and New York City.
AT&T is aiming for nationwide coverage of this low-band network in 2020.
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Telefonica picks Huawei and Nokia for its 5G networks in Germany
