Early Adopters in 19 Cities Can Now Access Mobile 5G Only From AT&T

AT&T1 mobile 5G service is now live in parts of 7 more cities, including Austin, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose. There are now 19 cities across the nation where AT&T is the only carrier to offer mobile 5G service to businesses and consumers, well ahead of our competition.   

“Last December we officially introduced the nation’s first commercial mobile 5G service,” said Andre Fuetsch, president AT&T Labs and chief technology officer. “We spent the early part of this year accelerating and advancing our 5G network with early adopters by our side. And now it’s time to offer this experience to more businesses and consumers in another 7 cities.”

After being the first company to offer both a live mobile 5G network and a commercially available 5G device in the U.S. last December, we continued to push for faster speeds. As a result, last month we were the first in the nation to surpass 1 gigabit mobile speeds on a live 5G connection. We are also working with some of the most innovative companies in the world to imagine and create new experiences only possible on 5G.

As we continue to expand our ultra-fast 5G network, we expect that by early 2020 we’ll have the best combination of mobile 5G – providing both the higher speeds available over mmWave spectrum and nationwide coverage available over “sub-6” spectrum.

These network accomplishments are in addition to AT&T offering the best2, as well as the fastest3 wireless network in the nation for existing customers with the latest smartphones. It’s clear in these results, our customers are already seeing the benefits of our investment in our 5G Evolution technologies, our first step in our transition from LTE to mobile 5G.

Insights from 5G Customers

We called our shot in January 2018 stating we were going to be the first U.S. company to launch mobile 5G service by the end of the year. This promise jumpstarted the device and network ecosystem. It became a reality when we made the NETGEAR Nighthawk 5G mobile hotspot available to businesses and consumers in December.

Our early business customers that have been on our 5G network since late 2018 are already seeing the promise of this network come to life.

“We transfer a lot of data. Like, a lot. The 5G hotspot is a great way for us to transfer these files, particularly on site, without bogging down our process,” said Mike Ballerino, Director of Construction at HCS Inc. General Contractor. “With our 2 5G mobile hotspots, we can keep workflows moving smoothly, perfect for when we’re out at a construction site and not in the office. That helps us get our jobs done faster than we could before.”

“Architecture is more than just designing buildings for people to live and work in. It’s about finding the right ways to inspire the people in those buildings,” said Erik Schlegel, Director of Technology at RATIO Architects. “Emerging technology continues to play a huge role in our LiveDesignSM process, and we’re at an exciting point in exploring how we can use the 5G hotspot to take collaboration a step further with faster network connectivity.”

Mobile 5G Device Availability

In 2019 we plan to offer at least three 5G mobile devices. We’re on track to make our next mobile 5G device, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G smartphone, available this spring. It will give customers the ability to not just ‘have the power of 5G in their hands’, but actually be able to take advantage of the next generation of connectivity.

Later this year we’ll bring another Samsung 5G smartphone to stores, giving customers the ability to take advantage of our 5G leadership in both speed and coverage. This smartphone will be able to access both mmWave and sub-6 spectrum.