American mobile phone carrier AT&T are soon to begin testing 5G network technology in the US. The company hopes to have a 5G test network running in Austin, Texas, in order to prepare for 5G rollouts across the United States towards the end of the decade.
The company is working with Ericsson and Intel to develop the technology in labs during the first half of the year, before starting outdoor tests this summer.
5G internet should be able to better handle the immense amounts of bandwidth being consumed by Americans (and people worldwide). 60% of AT&T’s mobile data went towards video in 2015, and with the rise of 4K that number could go even higher in 2016. Other technologies will be able to make use of 5G networks as well — like the Internet of Things, virtual reality and even self-driving cars.
5G networks are expected to be about 10 to 100 times faster than LTE, with download speeds measured in multiple gigabits per second. Latency will also be improved; AT&T reckon that their 5G network will be able to start streaming videos in less than five milliseconds from the time your finger taps play. That should be good for impatient consumers, and critical for things like competitive gaming and remote driving.
So when is 5G going to be actually available? Well, the 3GPP consortium is still agreeing on standards, with phase one expected to be completed in the first half of 2018, and phase two commencing some time after that. For its part, AT&T (and its competitors) should be ready by the time that these standards are set — and that includes competitors in the UK and Europe.
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