We knew it was coming, but now it’s here — sorta. AT&T today announced it was starting its initial 5G rollout in two US cities later this year: Austin and Indianapolis.
The telecom is calling the high-speed network “5G Evolution” and touts initial top speeds of up to 400 Mbps — about 40 times faster than a standard cellular data connection. Evolution, in this sense, is well-chose descriptor. The network will have to improve and evolve to actually hit the 1 Gbps a true 5G network is theoretically capable of. AT&T reports that improvements to the network could see the company reach theoretical gigabit speeds by the end of the year. Don’t hold your breath.
The initial rollout is part of a much larger initiative by the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier. Network 3.0 — or Indigo — is set to use software advancements to improve the performance of hardware, bringing upgrade costs down and speeds up without having to make significant network infrastructure investments moving forward.
The news follows a similar announcement yesterday in which the company updated us on ‘AirGig,’ a project that intends to bring gigabit speeds to your home over existing power lines. Currently AT&T is in “advanced talks” to start testing in two locations by this fall.
via The Verge
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