AT&T Announces Launch of 5G Wireless Connection in 2018
AT&T recently confirmed their plans to introduce services with 5G wireless connections in 2018.
This week, AT&T revealed that they were making progress in terms of introducing the first 5G network in the market. The company is aiming to launch the services "by late 2018."
In a statement, AT&T said: "To reach this ambitious milestone, we've taken a different approach to transforming our network. AT&T 5G services will be based on industry standards for 5G. To make this happen, we were one of the key drivers for standards acceleration last year."
AT&T added that their efforts for the acceleration of their services were some of the factors that paved the way for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project - which is recognized as the international body determining mobile network standards - to complete the set of requirements or specifications that carriers must follow in terms of offering the 5G mobile connections.
This allowed AT&T to start the development and manufacturing of equipment and devices needed for the upcoming 5G network services.
AT&T confirmed that they are targeting to bring the mobile 5G connection to at least 12 cities in the United States before 2018 ends. However, the carrier did not specify where these locations are.
In the same announcement, AT&T also said they have been "laying the foundation" for the arrival of the mobile 5G network through their 5G Evolution program in 23 major cities, which include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Louisville, Nashville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, and more. But the company has not confirmed which of these cities were actually getting the full mobile 5G services.
As AT&T finally introduces the 5G mobile network in some cities this year, it revealed its plan to continuously introduce 5G Evolution to more locations in the United States that would lead to eventually having an upgraded network.