Next-generation 5G wireless technology will be notable for providing both mobile connectivity and residential broadband. Verizon is slated to deploy the latter service in 2018 and is partnering with YouTube TV to provide the first subscribers with content.
AT&T promised in January to launch mobile 5G service in a dozen cities by the end of the year, though without naming any of them at the time. It later named three of them, and has now added the next three …
AT&T last week named the first cities to get access to its 5G rollout, and now Sprint has done the same for its network.
Interestingly, of the three cities named by AT&T and the six by Sprint, two of them are set to see 5G service from both carriers …
AT&T promised it would start rolling out what it claims will be the first true mobile 5G service before the end of the year, and it has just announced the first three cities in line to receive it.
We plan to offer mobile 5G to customers in a dozen cities, including parts of Dallas, Atlanta and Waco, Texas, by the end of this year. We’ll announce additional cities in the coming months.
The company says that the commercial rollout follows multi-city trials …
T-Mobile‘s outspoken CEO is always publicly discussing its network coverage, speeds, and how they are continuously working to improve the network for their customers. Today, Samsung has announced that the two companies will be collaborating on “new demonstrations and lab tests” as to begin working on what will one day be a 5G mobile network…
Verizon began lab-testing its 5G network last year, aiming to carry out the first real-world tests this year, and and AT&T has now announced that it will be doing the same. The company seems even more optimistic than Verizon, which estimated 5G speeds some 30-50 times faster than LTE.
We expect 5G to deliver speeds 10-100 times faster than today’s average 4G LTE connections. Customers will see speeds measured in gigabits per second, not megabits. For reference, at one gigabit per second, you can download a TV show in less than 3 seconds.
Don’t get too excited just yet, though, as there are a couple of small hurdles to be overcome first …
According to a report from The Guardian, Google is currently in the process of testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The company is reportedly testing the possibility of using these solar-powered drones to deliver high-speed internet from the air. Google, of course, also has its Project Loon effort, which uses high-alitude balloons to beam down internet service to the areas below. It’s unclear, at this point, if the two efforts are related or will be used in different scenarios.
5G could even make Google Fiber look slow …
Early tests of Verizon’s 5G technology show that it can achieve connection speeds 30-50 times faster than 4G/LTE – above the speeds offered by Google Fiber’s gigabit wired broadband. Even better, the company expects to have “some level of commercial deployment” by 2017, some three years earlier than expected, reports CNET.
To put that speed difference into perspective, the movie Guardians of the Galaxy would take around six minutes to download over a good LTE connection – while 5G would have it downloaded to your device in just 15 seconds …
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