Enlarge / An AT&T sign outside of a New York City corporate office.
AT&T will soon be offering 5G mobile service on its 850MHz spectrum, allowing for wider coverage than existing 5G networks, but offering only 4G-like speeds at launch. Substantial speed increases will arrive in 2020, says AT&T.
The 5G networks already used by carriers use millimeter wave signals that travel far and are easily blocked by walls and other obstacles. This has resulted in cover cards with small boxes of 5G and 4G just about everywhere else.
But 5G can work on all frequencies, such as the lower band frequencies used by 4G. There is not much spectrum available on these bands, so you will not see anything like the huge speed increases that are available on the millimeter-wave spectrum. But 5G on the low-band spectrum will cover wider areas and interior spaces and hopefully bring some speed increases – Verizon says that 5G on the lower bands will be “good 4G”.
AT & T’s announcement today mentioned the first cities scheduled to get 5G on the low band spectrum:
In the coming weeks, our 5G network will be launched via the low band spectrum in Indianapolis; Pittsburgh; Providence, Rhode Island; Rochester, New York; and San Diego market areas. We also plan to launch in multiple markets, including Boston; Las Vegas; Milwaukee; New York City; San Francisco; Birmingham, Alabama; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Buffalo, New York; Louisville, Kentucky; San Jose, California; and others.
AT&T has also published a PDF with maps with an expected 5G coverage, but the maps have a coverage for February 2020 instead of what will be available at the launch.
AT&T previously offered millimeter-wave 5G to business customers, but not to regular consumers. AT&T told us that 5G on millimeter waves will be offered to consumers “at a later date”. Initially, regular consumers will only have access to 5G on a low-band spectrum.
