5G Is Weeks Away

 

Back in January of this year, AT&T (the second largest provider of mobile telephone services) announced their plans to rollout out its 5G mobile network by the end of 2018, and with just weeks to go until the end of 2018, it looks like they will be sticking to that plan.

According to John Donovan, CEO of AT&T Communications, the mobile network provider is just “weeks away” from launching its 5G network.

AT&T are expected to be the first wireless carrier in the U.S. to launch mobile 5G, however having a smartphone that is 5G enabled isn’t likely to be available until some time in 2019. While a 5G ready iPhone probably won’t be on the market until late 2020.

However, AT&T will be releasing a puck-like mobile hotspot device enabling users to use 5G.

They say that 5G will be hundreds of times faster than 4G and at least 4 and a half times faster than wireless broadband. The average download speeds for broadband were around 65Mbps, while AT&T say 5G will deliver between 300Mbps to 1Gbps.

Although the U.S. is gearing up to rollout the super-fast wireless internet connection, at this time it isn’t clear when 5G will be available to the UK. But we do know that the West Midlands got £75 million in public funding to develop and test 5G in the region earlier this year.

And while AT&T are aiming to be the first 5G providers, most other networks are taking a slower approach. Vodafone is planning to start by trialling radio towers that transmit 4G and 5G before it considers switching over to full-5G networks.

We will likely have 5G ready devices a while before network providers actually roll out widespread coverage, so it may be some time before you can actually connect to 5G.