Today, AT&T announced that its now selling the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, the carrier"s first 5G handset. There"s only one problem, which is that you can"t buy it; well, unless you"re a business or a developer.
Developers can get it through the AT&T Developer Program, and business customers can get it if they"re on the AT&T Business Unlimited Premium plan. The price of the handset is $999.99 (for a limited time) for the model with 256GB of storage, which is the same price as a 128GB Galaxy S10+.
"Businesses are leading the charge on the nation’s first mobile 5G network, and this is the next step in unlocking 5G’s full potential for those early adopters and innovators," said Mo Katibeh, Chief Marketing Officer, AT&T Business. "With mobile 5G a core tenet of our 5G strategy for businesses, we’re making this amazing new device available so that the business community can begin creating new experiences and drive the next industrial revolution through unprecedented mobile capabilities."
The reason that consumers can"t buy it is because AT&T"s 5G network simply isn"t ready for consumers. The carrier"s 5G mmWave network (which it"s calling 5G+, for some reason) is only available in "very limited parts of 19 cities", and it has plans to "reach parts" of 30 cities. Clearly, no one is really missing out by not having a Galaxy S10 5G right now, at least on AT&T.
The first developers to get their hands on the device will be the ones that attend AT&T SHAPE later on this month in Los Angeles.