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AT&T Opens 5G Network in 12 US Cities, Announces Pricing For First 5G Mobile Device and Service (venturebeat.com)
AT&T said Tuesday its network is now live in parts of 12 cities across the United States, with the first mobile 5G device arriving on Friday, December 21. From a report: According to an AT&T spokesperson, the company's 5G network is already up and running in parts of the previously promised dozen cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raleigh, San Antonio, and Waco. However, the first consumer device that will be able to access that network, Netgear's Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot, will become available just ahead of the Christmas holiday.
The company also revealed that it will be using the name "5G+" for the part of its network that will use millimeter wave spectrum and technologies, and it said the Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot will run on that 5G+ network. [...] AT&T's 5G pricing is also interesting. Like Verizon, AT&T is offering an initial promotion that makes the hardware and 5G service cheap up front, with new pricing set to follow later. Early adopters from the consumer, small business, and business markets will be able to "get the mobile 5G device and wireless data at no cost for at least 90 days," AT&T says, with new pricing beginning in spring 2019. At that point, the Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot will cost $499 outright, with 15GB of 5G service priced at $70 per month, which AT&T calls "comparable" to its current $50 monthly charge for 10GB of 4G data.
The company also revealed that it will be using the name "5G+" for the part of its network that will use millimeter wave spectrum and technologies, and it said the Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot will run on that 5G+ network. [...] AT&T's 5G pricing is also interesting. Like Verizon, AT&T is offering an initial promotion that makes the hardware and 5G service cheap up front, with new pricing set to follow later. Early adopters from the consumer, small business, and business markets will be able to "get the mobile 5G device and wireless data at no cost for at least 90 days," AT&T says, with new pricing beginning in spring 2019. At that point, the Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot will cost $499 outright, with 15GB of 5G service priced at $70 per month, which AT&T calls "comparable" to its current $50 monthly charge for 10GB of 4G data.
While over-the-air bandwidth is bound by Shannon's limit, that only applies to shared channels. The MU-MIMO found on most 802.11ac implementations gets around this limitation by making the channels directional. It's basically a simplified form of phased array radar, where you can "point" the antenna via software rather than have to physically move it. For a visual analogy, 802.11a/b/g/n is like turning the room light on and off, and the device receive the light signal by measuring the overall brightness of the room. MIMO is like the sender shining a laser pointer at the receiver, and the receiver using a tube to reject light from any direction other than the sender's direction. Whereas the room light affects and interferes with all other light-based communication in the room (the channel is shared), the laser pointer only interferes if you happen to be in the same line as the sender to recipient. Since the information channel is no longer shared, the Shannon limit no longer applies, and everyone is able to use the full bandwidth of the airwaves simultaneously.
5G includes MIMO, enabling it to communicate with individual devices simultaneously over the same frequencies without interference. So going forward, I expect the Shannon limit to be less and less relevant to wireless communications.
As I've been saying, 5G doesn't really benefit you in the best-case scenarios people usually use for comparisons (nobody except you is using the cell tower for data). It benefits you in the worst-case scenario (lots of other people are competing with you for bandwidth to a cell tower).