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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.

10 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. 15 gig? by ganjadude · · Score: 2

    if the speeds are to be believed, 15 GB will take what 3 minutes to max out???

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    1. Re:15 gig? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm sure we'll find out that 5G+ is really just 4G with carrier aggregation or some other half-assery. Everyone's dream of unlimited mobile internet will never happen as long as the cell carriers are in charge.

    2. Re:15 gig? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Everyone's dream of unlimited mobile internet will never happen as long as the laws of physics are in charge.

      FTFY

  2. Re:So... it will probably be 2025 by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    Google got bored with Fiber. Too much trouble. I am pretty sure what ATT is selling here though is fixed point 5G to replace people with cable/DSL connections. You would only need one hotspot per household.

  3. Re:I've been thinking about moving to Waco by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hear there's a church there that's been looking for a new leader/messiah.

    It's sad, that happened decades ago, but that's still what I think of whenever I hear Waco.

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  4. Re: So... it will probably be 2025 by internerdj · · Score: 2

    Just checked my cell phone. It says I used 18GB myself, primarily through a 3.0Mbps DSL connection. That doesn't count the usage of 4 other people in my household, or whatever the DirecTV boxes are using for on demand, or "rewind to the beginning", or whatever we did on computers or streaming devices or firmware for all the stuff hanging off my network... Nor does it count for the 3GB 4G data my wife and I use. Even a small fee per GB sounds like a several hundred dollar bill every month.

  5. Re: So... it will probably be 2025 by jwhyche · · Score: 3

    I do 15 GB a night alone streaming documentaries and old Doctor Who re-runs. I introduced my millennial daughter and her friends to the Tom Baker doctor. They looked at me like I had turned green when I told them this was Doctor Who.

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  6. Re:How does this fit in for home internet? by jwhyche · · Score: 2

    I don't want to ditch cable internet as much as I want to see more competition. I've been stuck with comcast for the several years and pretty much had to put up with whatever crap they felt like pulling. Last year AT&T wired my apartment for fiber. They sing a different tune now that I'm not locked into just them.

    Yeah, I know AT&T is just as evil so I'm still with comcast on the "devil you know" principal.

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  7. No laws of physics are being broken by Solandri · · Score: 4, Informative

    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).

  8. Re: So... it will probably be 2025 by jwhyche · · Score: 2

    That will come later. Tom Baker is the first Dr. I found and remains my favorite. Well him and Peter Davidson. Yes I liked Peter Davidson as the Doctor.

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