Future of 5G Technology - The Promise of a Faster Network

5G's Promise

Much like 4G introduced the world to the gig economy, we believe mobile 5G will jumpstart the next wave of unforeseen innovation. AT&T has a standards-based, mobile 5G+ network live in parts of 21 cities – Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Raleigh, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and Waco.

We’ll keep our 5G momentum going and plan to introduce mobile 5G+ in parts of 30 cities, including Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Miami and others. Additionally, we plan to offer 5G nationwide in the first half of 2020.

5G will ultimately unlock use cases that are dependent on faster speed, wide coverage, and low latency. Think of this as the next frontier in untethering, giving you the ability to take the ultra-fast experience you have in your home or business with you virtually anywhere. This next revolution in wireless technology will create significant new economic opportunities and better experiences for people and businesses serving customers across industries as well as creating new ones.

Our trial with Magnolia Silos in Waco, Texas provided us a glimpse into how 5G could change retail for example. We observed wireless speeds of approximately 1.2 Gbps in a 400 MHz channel and RAN latency rates at 9-12 milliseconds.

Whether you’re a retailer, car wash owner, hospital, manufacturer, public safety entity or a bank, 5G promises to change the customer experience and provide new economic opportunities for your business.

For information and statements related to 5G regulatory matters, please visit AT&T’s Public Policy forum.

Connectivity Impact of Future Technologies and Services

Data traffic on AT&T’s mobile network has grown more than 470,000% since 2007. Video traffic increased over 75% in the last year and continues to be the largest driver of this growth, making up more than half of our mobile data traffic.

For new technologies to be widely deployed, mobile networks will need to deliver complex and wide ranging network management capabilities for quality, performance, bandwidth, latency, and coverage. For example, for the self-driving car experiences to meet future customer expectations, it will be critical to quickly communicate with other connected vehicles and objects with high reliability while the vehicle is in motion.

Investing in America

Between 2014 and 2018, AT&T invested more in the U.S. than any other public company — more than $130 billion including capital investment and acquisitions of spectrum and wireless operations. Our wireless network now covers more than 99% of Americans, our fiber network is one of the nation’s largest and we connect more Internet of Things devices than any other provider in North America. Additionally, more than 3 million businesses, from the largest global companies to small businesses, turn to AT&T.