AT&T made what it calls the world's first wireless 5G data transfer over millimetre wave using standards-based, production equipment with a mobile form factor device over the 8-9 September weekend, in Waco, Texas. The US operator also announced that it plans to introduce mobile 5G in parts of five additional cities, Houston, Jacksonville, Louisville, New Orleans, and San Antonio, in 2018.
These new cities are in addition to seven cities where it already announced plans to launch mobile 5G in 2018 – Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Raleigh, and Waco. The company will keep its 5G momentum going in 2019 and plans to introduce mobile 5G in parts of Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose. It will continue to expand from these 19 cities.
AT&T's 5G deployment strategy will include using millimetre wave spectrum to deploy 5G in pockets of dense areas – where demand on its network is high and extra capacity and coverage is needed most. In other parts of urban areas and in suburban and rural areas, it plans to deploy 5G on its mid and low-band spectrum holdings. The company said it was encouraged by the performance of mmWave in its 5G trials and found that it performs better than expected and is successful in delivering ultra-high wireless speeds under a variety of conditions.
In addition, its 5G Evolution technology, an upgrade of LTE, is now live in more than 200 markets and will reach over 400 markets by the end of 2018.
For the 8-9 September Waco activation, its engineering teams used a Qualcomm Technologies' smartphone form factor test device with integrated Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem and RF subsystem and Ericsson 5G-NR capable radios connected to its virtual 3X standards compliant core.
To help build its 5G network, AT&T selected Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung as its technology suppliers. Working with these three suppliers, it already started deploying 3GPP Release 15 compliant equipment in a handful of its early 5G cities.
