AT&T Plans 5G Network Trial for DirecTV Customers (fortune.com)

AT&T said it plans to test its high-speed wireless 5G network, which reached speeds of 14 gigabits per second in lab trials, for customers of its online streaming television service, DirecTV Now, in Austin, Texas. From a report on Fortune: The U.S. wireless carrier, which plans to conduct the trial in the first half of 2017, has also teamed up with Qualcomm and Ericsson for mobile and broadband trials of the 5G network in the second half of the year. New 5G networks are expected to provide speeds at least 10 times and maybe 100 times faster than today's 4G networks, giving the potential to connect at least 100 billion devices with download speeds that can reach 10 gigabits per second.

Comments

How many seconds

[daninaustin]

How many seconds of data before you reach your monthly data allotment? ATT will find a way to stick it to you on your bill.

Re:How many seconds

[bondsbw]

It appears their current highest data cap is 100GB (at $450 plus device access charge and other fees). At 10 Gbps, that would last around 1 minute, 20 seconds. That comes to $5.63 per second.

Those are theoretical speeds and most of us won't ever see them in real life. Still, data caps need to change dramatically as speeds see such increases.

Re:How many seconds

[JesseMcDonald]

Higher bandwidth does not mean you use more data to stream a movie

Actually, in most cases it does. The provider automatically selects the video quality based on the available bandwidth, so more bandwidth available equals more bandwidth—and data—used for the same duration of video. Up to a point, anyway: 4K or UHD video, the current "gold standards", require 35-45 Mbps; this is also the approximate maximum bitrate supported by Blu-ray discs. At that rate you'd need to download a GB every 3.5 minutes, or over 24 GB for a typical 1.5 hour movie. I suspect the peak mobile bandwidth available in most places is considerably less than 40 Mbps, though results may vary in major metropolitan areas.

LTE

[OffaMyLawn]

I thought the whole point of LTE was Long Term Evolution (says it right there on the tin). 5G seems to be built around millimeter wave, which has some pretty severe distance limitations, meaning it is feasible for networks to deploy this technology in highly dense population areas primarily. What's the point?

Re: LTE

[adolf]

We aren't even using 4g yet.

The marketing wank in this industry is thick and inscrutable.

All that I gleaned from TFS was "omg we figured out how multicast works, herp herp!"

ATT customer here

[rmdingler]

I have the legacy land line and switched to Directv to catch a sports package, and this has led to a pretty heavy marketing attempt to bundle the other services.

The temptation being proffered now is the "unlimited" data use for viewing tv on all your devices if you submit to the bundling.

I am naturally sceptical that these perks will last long beyond an introductory period, as the very best deals for everything are only available to new customers for a limited time.

Re:AT&T doesn't even have 4G yet... WTFATS?

[acoustix]

They called hspda+ 4G, when it's really 3G+. They are all running LTE now, which is real 4G.

The parent post is referring to the fact that LTE technically isn't 4G. The carriers are bending the truth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_(telecommunication)