In a move that it claims will make it the first U.S. company to do so, AT&T is promising to bring its customers 5G internet access to over a dozen markets by the end of the year. With the mobile industry now in agreement over the standards for 5G networks, AT&T plans to beat earlier projections and implement commercial deployment this year.
It will have stiff competition from its largest competitor if it wants the distinction of being the first American company to do so, however, as Verizon has also promised to cover at least 5 markets in the latter half of 2018. AT&T did not specify what these dozen or so markets will be, though it"s likely that larger cities will be first in line to benefit from the incredulous speeds that can be achieved via 5G networks.
Beyond a statement stating the company is focused on the "long-term vision" for 5G internet, it didn"t provide more details on what the exact capabilities of the network will be, and the speeds which customers can realistically expect. Which current and upcoming mobile devices will be able to avail the faster speeds also remains unclear.
Unlike its sham marketing stunt from earlier this year, this will constitute a true 5G network. However, the company is also promising that its rather erroneously named 5G Evolution network - which is really based on 4G technology - will also be seeing a wider implementation by the end of the year, reaching "hundreds" of additional metropolitan areas. Two dozen additional unspecific cities will see an LTE-LAA rollout in the same timeframe.