Yesterday, Samsung announced its partnership with Verizon to launch a 5G smartphone in the United States in the first half of next year. Not wanting to be left behind, AT&T, Verizon's largest competitor in the U.S. has now confirmed that it will be carrying the device on its network as well.
Much like yesterday's news, the announcement is somewhat short on details, but the carrier does specify that the phone will launch in the spring of 2019. It's likely that this will be one of the variants of the Galaxy S10, as it typically releases around that time of the year. David Christopher, president of AT&T Mobility and Entertainment, said:
“5G is going to be about more than just a network. Customers will eventually be able to connect in near real-time to unforeseen possibilities (...). Together with Samsung, we plan to bring the best in technology and innovation to our customers. The future we imagine with 5G is just beginning, and it is a great time to be a consumer.”
In addition to the smartphone, the two companies are also working together on a 5G Innovation Zone. The goal of this project is to enable new capabilities for factories and their manufacturing processes using 5G to connect the machinery and quickly access information about its performance.
AT&T has previously announced a 5G hotspot, and even though the year is closing out, the carrier says its 5G service will still launch before the end of 2018. The necessary equipment has already been installed in the 12 locations where it promised to launch the service, so it shouldn't take long for the company to turn on the new signal.
As a reminder, the 12 cities in which the service will launch this year are Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Raleigh, San Antonio, and Waco. In 2019, service will expand to 19 more cities, starting with Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose, California in the first half of the year.
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