AT&T announces plans to launch mobile 5G service in 12 cities by end of 2018

AppleInsider

After the cellular industry agreed on specifications for the next-generation mobile 5G standard in December, AT&T on Wednesday announced plans to begin rolling out its own flavor of the speedy wireless technology by the end of 2018.

By launching in 12 U.S. markets by year's end, AT&T hopes to be the first major network to boast 5G connectivity options for consumers. The nation's second-largest wireless carrier by subscribers failed to disclose which cities will get access to mobile 5G.

AT&T claims it was one of the "key drivers" for acceleration of the 5G standard, key components of which were adopted by 3GPP, the international wireless standards body, last month. Device and parts manufacturers can now begin developing hardware to take advantage of the new specification, AT&T said.

Apple is undoubtedly working with partner suppliers to build 5G capabilities into a future iPhone. The tech giant filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission in May to start testing 5G connectivity, while reports in November suggested the company is working closely with Intel on potential 5G modem solutions.

"5G will change the way we live, work and enjoy entertainment," said Melissa Arnoldi, president, AT&T Technology and Operations. "We're moving quickly to begin deploying mobile 5G this year and start unlocking the future of connectivity for consumers and businesses. With faster speeds and ultra-low latency, 5G will ultimately deliver and enhance experiences like virtual reality, future driverless cars, immersive 4K video and more."

Alongside the mobile 5G rollout, AT&T will continue to build out its "5G Evolution" backbone beyond the 23 markets that currently have access to the service. Coverage will be expanded to include hundreds of metro areas, AT&T said.

A system that uses a mix of existing 4G technology to achieve faster speeds, "5G Evolution" does not meet 3GPP's 5G spec, but the network will serve as a foundation for the carrier's mobile 5G deployment later this year.

Additionally, AT&T will expand its LTE-LAA network to at least two dozen new metro areas in 2018.

AT&T is not alone in the race to 5G, as Sprint and T-Mobile have pegged network launch dates in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Verizon has been testing 5G since 2016, but has yet to announce a definitive rollout timeline.

macseeker

Now we can burn through our data plans in a few minutes time. NEAT! Still will have the same low amount data plans. 5G really not worth it.

ksec

macseeker said:

Now we can burn through our data plans in a few minutes time. NEAT! Still will have the same low amount data plans. 5G really not worth it.

5G is more about capacity, or in Carrier's POV, lowering the cost per GB. And the 5G defined just a week ago really is a 4.9G. The world is moving towards unlimited plans as Carrier should have abundant capacity once they have 5G rolled out.

Assuming consumers continue to renew their phone every 30 months or so, which is big part of how Network can improve efficiency since your phone has to support it. We are looking at 4 - 5X capacity improvement with the current infrastructure.

That is excluding any Frequency Band refarming and new Band added to LTE.

k2kw

On December 28, 2017, Renee Ritchie had an interesting Vector Podcast  "5G with Daniel Bader" Highly recommend it.   I carrier a Verizon 7Plus and an ATT 8Plus.   The Verizon 7Plus seems to be much better.    People call my ATT phone and they don't get a call, but then I get a message that I missed a call.    If they call a second time then my phone rings.   Is Verizon so much better or does ATT just such.   Should I switch ATT to Tmobile.   Recommendations welcome.   

deminsd

macseeker said:

Now we can burn through our data plans in a few minutes time. NEAT! Still will have the same low amount data plans. 5G really not worth it.

I've tried, but cannot figure out how people think that faster service will use MORE data?  A movie is a fixed amount of data, whether you get it downloaded in 2 minutes or 2 hours.  A website contains a fixed amount of data, too.  Everything you do is a fixed amount of data and that amount of data won't change just because you have faster service.  

If you use your phone data service to download torrents all day, then I can possibly see how you'd use your plan data faster, but people don't do that.   Maybe you have nothing better to do than watch endless Youtube videos every day until your data is depleted?  Then, yes, you would consume all your data faster.

But for everyone else, we will generally use the same amount of data as we do each month.  Analogy--the city triples the size of the water main coming into your water meter at your house.  Are you going to consume 3x more water because the pipe in the street is bigger?  

edited January 2018

wood1208

This means 2018 iphone will have Intel 5G modem chip inside.

airnerd

deminsd said:

macseeker said:

Now we can burn through our data plans in a few minutes time. NEAT! Still will have the same low amount data plans. 5G really not worth it.

I've tried, but cannot figure out how people think that faster service will use MORE data?  A movie is a fixed amount of data, whether you get it downloaded in 2 minutes or 2 hours.  A website contains a fixed amount of data, too.  Everything you do is a fixed amount of data and that amount of data won't change just because you have faster service.  

If you use your phone data service to download torrents all day, then I can possibly see how you'd use your plan data faster, but people don't do that.   Maybe you have nothing better to do than watch endless Youtube videos every day until your data is depleted?  Then, yes, you would consume all your data faster.

But for everyone else, we will generally use the same amount of data as we do each month.  Analogy--the city triples the size of the water main coming into your water meter at your house.  Are you going to consume 3x more water because the pipe in the street is bigger?  

I'm with you.  All I can figure is that if I'm not spending time waiting on a video to buffer but am instead watching the video, I can watch more videos per day?  

airnerd

wood1208 said:

This means 2018 iphone will have Intel 5G modem chip inside.

perhaps for a March "entry" iPhone refresh?  Need to upgrade my 6, but not in love with the price of the X that has features I won't use (I'm old and don't use emojis and aside from gimmick games don't see a use for AR yet).  An iPhone 8c might be what I need though.  

applesnoranges

Looking forward to upgrading to 5G Apple products...😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

mike1

airnerd said:

wood1208 said:

This means 2018 iphone will have Intel 5G modem chip inside.

perhaps for a March "entry" iPhone refresh?  Need to upgrade my 6, but not in love with the price of the X that has features I won't use (I'm old and don't use emojis and aside from gimmick games don't see a use for AR yet).  An iPhone 8c might be what I need though.  

Old people seem to love emojis. Heck, my mother can't send a message without including at least a dozen.

ksec

deminsd said:

macseeker said:

Now we can burn through our data plans in a few minutes time. NEAT! Still will have the same low amount data plans. 5G really not worth it.

I've tried, but cannot figure out how people think that faster service will use MORE data?  A movie is a fixed amount of data, whether you get it downloaded in 2 minutes or 2 hours.  A website contains a fixed amount of data, too.  Everything you do is a fixed amount of data and that amount of data won't change just because you have faster service.  

If you use your phone data service to download torrents all day, then I can possibly see how you'd use your plan data faster, but people don't do that.   Maybe you have nothing better to do than watch endless Youtube videos every day until your data is depleted?  Then, yes, you would consume all your data faster.

But for everyone else, we will generally use the same amount of data as we do each month.  Analogy--the city triples the size of the water main coming into your water meter at your house.  Are you going to consume 3x more water because the pipe in the street is bigger?  

There is a correlation, just not the linear relationship. Basically you are spending the same amount of time regardless whether you have fast or slow connection, since time is limited for everyone, the plateau will really be us running out of time to consume more. So the faster the connection, the more things you hop through, and hence more data.

For video, which is fixed with time and Data. We might likely consumer more video within our time and less picture and text once connection is fast enough for everyone. That will leads to more data being used, but once we factored in higher compression from HEVC, which offer 40% more compression, everything should cancel out.

So yes, the future of unlimited usage is much closer then most people thought. *

*Unless there is another killer app which uses lots of bandwidth.

 

zoetmb

mike1 said:

airnerd said:

wood1208 said:

This means 2018 iphone will have Intel 5G modem chip inside.

perhaps for a March "entry" iPhone refresh?  Need to upgrade my 6, but not in love with the price of the X that has features I won't use (I'm old and don't use emojis and aside from gimmick games don't see a use for AR yet).  An iPhone 8c might be what I need though.  

Old people seem to love emojis. Heck, my mother can't send a message without including at least a dozen.

Anecdotal.   And I don't buy it.  Apple's TV advertising pushing emojis and stickers was clearly aimed towards very young people.   Also anecdotal, but I'm "old", and I hate emojis and have warned friends not to send them to me, especially as a separate text (back when I was still paying per message).

cloudmobile

wood1208 said:

This means 2018 iphone will have Intel 5G modem chip inside.

Doesn't appear that any Android phone will. Both the Qualcomm 845 and the Exynos 9810 will have radios that will support 1.2 GB 4G LTE. None will have 5G. Qualcomm built the X50 modem capable of supporting 5G, but only the Verizon proprietary 5G that is more intended to replace stationary broadband i.e. that what your PC and cable box uses than mobile. Qualcomm, Samsung and MediaTek won't have 5G according to the 3GPP standard - what Qualcomm, Intel and the non Verizon big mobile companies want to be the industry standard - until 2019.

Personally, I hope that Verizon wins this battle. Verizon doesn't have much going on in terms of being a cable/broadband provider. So they will want to get people to use their 5G service to replace their Internet and cable service: the ultimate cord-cutting package. Meanwhile AT&T - who is part of 3GPP - and others are probably going to want to continue to sell you mobile, broadband and cable separately. (T-Mobile is a wildcard however as they are already working on their T-Mobile TV service.)

If that how it plays out, I hope that Apple sides with Verizon. As the Internet companies are also content owners i.e. Comcast this would be a way of attacking that monopoly. Particularly since Apple will want to offer live TV and their own original content. Being able to deliver that directly to consumers who own iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple TVs etc. over 5G would be in their benefit.

big kc

@Macseker - you must be on some antiquated plan with severe data restrictions. We are on T-Mobile One Plus. Originally 2 lines unlimited for $100. Added a 3rd line for free during a brief promo, then added the "Plus" features (normally $10/line per month, and include full LTE-speed tethering, and unlimited GoGo in-flight WiFi - a huge perk for travelers). So now we have the maxed out plan, unlimited everything, 3 lines for $100 total - no additional taxes or fees, the $100 is all inclusive. Another fantastic T-Mo plan is the 55+ plan - 2 unlimited lines for $60 total. Account holder has to be 55 years old, second line can be to anyone of any age. Deals are out there - don't stick with an old plan that's no longer competitive, the carrier will let you stay with an outdated plan as long as you want to - it's how they rake in HUGE profits.

williamh

deminsd said:

macseeker said:

Now we can burn through our data plans in a few minutes time. NEAT! Still will have the same low amount data plans. 5G really not worth it.

I've tried, but cannot figure out how people think that faster service will use MORE data?  A movie is a fixed amount of data, whether you get it downloaded in 2 minutes or 2 hours.  A website contains a fixed amount of data, too.  Everything you do is a fixed amount of data and that amount of data won't change just because you have faster service.  

If you use your phone data service to download torrents all day, then I can possibly see how you'd use your plan data faster, but people don't do that.   Maybe you have nothing better to do than watch endless Youtube videos every day until your data is depleted?  Then, yes, you would consume all your data faster.

But for everyone else, we will generally use the same amount of data as we do each month.  Analogy--the city triples the size of the water main coming into your water meter at your house.  Are you going to consume 3x more water because the pipe in the street is bigger?  

The article provides some hints at how you will use more data, and internet history suggests it will come to pass.  4k video, immersive VR, etc.  Websites used to work over dial up connections,  Broadband internet enabled richer content.  Try using dial-up now.  We use exponentially more data than we used to and not because we're necessarily doing more on the internet- but yeah we're doing more too.

edited January 2018

racerhomie3

mike1 said:

airnerd said:

wood1208 said:

This means 2018 iphone will have Intel 5G modem chip inside.

perhaps for a March "entry" iPhone refresh?  Need to upgrade my 6, but not in love with the price of the X that has features I won't use (I'm old and don't use emojis and aside from gimmick games don't see a use for AR yet).  An iPhone 8c might be what I need though.  

Old people seem to love emojis. Heck, my mother can't send a message without including at least a dozen.

I love using iOS 11 emojis. Very helpful.

k2kw

wood1208 said:

This means 2018 iphone will have Intel 5G modem chip inside.

Did Apple use the Intel or Qualcomm modem in the iPhone 8?

edited January 2018

volcan

deminsd said:

macseeker said:

Now we can burn through our data plans in a few minutes time. NEAT! Still will have the same low amount data plans. 5G really not worth it.

I've tried, but cannot figure out how people think that faster service will use MORE data?   

When I'm on the road I use my iPhone as a personal hotspot for my MBP. I need secure encrypted WiFi and many airports, hotels and restaurants just have a free no password open WiFi. I definitely go through a lot more data with a laptop than I would just using the iPhone. One reason is that many websites have a simplified lightweight version of pages designed for smartphones whereas a computer gets the full heavy version. The other factor for me in this scenario is that I spend a lot of time logged into a remote desktop VPN to the office which is a very heavy use of data. It would be great to speed that process up, but it will definitely use more data because I can get more done. As it is now the connection stalls often. Furthermore if you are using Maps in CarPlay the tiles will load and update much faster with 5G and you will consume more data.

edited January 2018

mavemufc

macseeker said:

Now we can burn through our data plans in a few minutes time. NEAT! Still will have the same low amount data plans. 5G really not worth it.

Why don't you get more data on your plan then? I've got 100GB on my new iPhone 10.

mavemufc

I love hearing about stuff like this, crazy where technology is gonna go in the next few years!

tallest skil

ksec said:

The world is moving towards unlimited plans as Carrier should have abundant capacity once they have 5G rolled out.

Which means the US won’t be getting them. “Should have” doesn’t mean anything when we’re talking about corporations–particularly telecoms and other media companies.

mavemufc said:

Why don't you get more data on your plan then? I've got 100GB on my new iPhone 10.

Your Toyota breaks down? Why don’t you get a Lamborghini?

edited January 2018