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AT&T Communications United States

AT&T Promises Low-Band 5G for 5 Cities in Weeks, 15 by Early 2020 (venturebeat.com) 35

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Normally, major 5G network expansion news has been exciting enough for carriers to announce first thing in the morning, but AT&T just continued its already confusing 5G story by revealing a big change in the dead of night: It's launching a low-band 5G network across five cities in "the coming weeks," with promises to cover at least 15 cities by February 2020. From a report: This will be the carrier's first 5G launch targeted at regular customers. The good news: Some form of AT&T 5G service will soon be available in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rochester, and San Diego, followed by Birmingham, Boston, Bridgeport, Buffalo, Las Vegas, Louisville, Milwaukee, New York City, San Francisco, and San Jose early next year. Initial service maps actually cover wide swaths of each city, in some cases extending into suburbs, and the carrier suggests the low-band 5G will work at roughly two-mile distances from towers, including "on the go," residential," "suburban," and "rural" usage.
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AT&T Promises Low-Band 5G for 5 Cities in Weeks, 15 by Early 2020 More

AT&T Promises Low-Band 5G for 5 Cities in Weeks, 15 by Early 2020

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  • low band 5G == 4G (Score:3)

    by fred6666 ( 4718031 ) on Friday November 22, 2019 @03:19PM (#59443864)

    Nobody is going to notice a difference. Sure, at the beginning when early adopters are going to be alone on a tower it may be fast. But after everybody joins, it will be much like current 4G.

    • I guarantee you 70000 people in a baseball stadium will be able to instantly tell the difference. 5G dramatically improves the very thing you are complaining about, air-interface congestion.

      • You are talking about high band 5G (aka "real" 5G). This article is about low band 5G

        • No I'm talking about the technology changes involved in the 5G radio, the software at either end, the new specs for the radio components, and the changed passband modulation scheme being used.

          Please read up about a technology before you comment on it.

          • Yes. Below 6 GHz, 5G is expected to be at most 20% faster than 4G. Nobody is going to notice that. With higher expected usage, performance could even be worse.

            The real advantage of 5G is going to be in the high band, where more spectrum is available, and therefore channels can be wider.
            The actual bit per second per Hz of 5G is not that much different from 4G.

            • For the un-informed (such as myself) here is a writeup about AT&T's 5G branding with more meat than the linked article:

              https://www.lightreading.com/m... [lightreading.com]

              My take-away:

              • 5G+: the thing everybody besides AT&T calls "5G"
              • Lowband 5G: un-interesting, uses 5G infrastructure to probably provide some benefit to carriers
              • 5G Evolution: outright scam. Made-up name for LTE, a.k.a. 4G

              • Lowband 5G: un-interesting, uses 5G infrastructure to probably provide some benefit to carriers

                Actually this is more interesting since as I said, 5G has better coding and software that gets massive improvements in congested scenarios.

            • Yes. Below 6 GHz, 5G is expected to be at most 20% faster than 4G.

              It's almost like you read letters put to a page and purposefully put effort into not understanding them. Try again.

    • They will notice when their phone burns their hand and the battery life drops to 2 hours.
  • Hopefully someone sues them for false advertising and wins. If it isn't the full 5G spec, then it isn't 5G, full stop.

    • that's the problem, the full 5G spec include speeds comparable to 4G in the low band (under 6 GHz)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Chromal ( 56550 )
        Yes, and 5G includes milliwave frequencies as part of the spec, I assume in the 'high' band. The idea must be that if you're, I don't know, behind anything that blocks milliwave radio frequencies (e.g.: almost anything solid?), the low band will still punch through and provide degraded service. But if you don't even offer the milliwave frequencies on the tower, then you aren't offering the full 5G spec. If you claim it's 5G even though it isn't the full spec (and this is something apparently that's been don

    • If it isn't the full 5G spec

      It is the full 5G spec. Just because you never read the spec doesn't mean they are falsely advertising.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Chromal ( 56550 )
        From the article, cited above by the OP: "During that time, regular AT&T customers were offered “5GE,” rebranded 4G service that was no faster or otherwise better than the latest 4G on rival networks. Competitors and media universally described 5GE as a marketing scam, leading rival Sprint to sue AT&T for misleading customers. Even so, AT&T defended the rebranding effort and expressed pleasure that it had gotten into competitors’ heads. As rivals continued to roll out consumer

        • A single paragraph does not make an article. The article is about low-band 5G which is perfectly in spec. 5GE was shit they pulled at the start of this year. No one has sued them yet, why would anyone start now?

    • I think you are partially right. currently my phone says 5Ge and not a 5g tower for hundreds of miles. It is fooling a lot of people into thinking they got 5g.

  • not 5G (Score:3)

    by kamapuaa ( 555446 ) on Friday November 22, 2019 @03:45PM (#59443932) Homepage

    If it works more than two blocks from the tower, it's not really 5G.

    • If it works more than two blocks from the tower, it's not really 5G.

      Just what is it do you think that 5G is? If you answer some mm band, you'd be wrong. If you answer 4G with less range, you'd be wrong.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      If it works more than two blocks from the tower, it's not really 5G.

      That depends. There's several forms of 5G. There's low-band 5G that is below 1GHz, similar to the 700, 800, 850MHz were for cellphones. These are great for large area coverage.

      There's the middle band in the GHz somewhere, which can go anywhere from a block to a mile (a block downtown or a mile in the country) which gives you the bandwidth for your tasks.

      Then there's mmWave 5G that works in the 30-60GHz range. Immensely fast since the bandwi

  • Marketing people are going to ram 5G up America;s wazoo, no matter what the cost.

    • Marketing people are going to ram 5G up America;s wazoo, no matter what the cost.

      Huh? Did Dopler Radar stop working when 4G and 3G were rolled out? What makes you think using the same band for 5G is going to affect Doppler radar? What makes you think the benefit of the technology is "marketing"?

      What the hell happened to Slashdot as a tech site?

  • Several posts in on a tech site for nerds about an new technology being deployed in a lower frequency and we have posts that consist entirely of:
    - FUD about weather radar being affected by something not at all in its band.
    - Complaints about 5G that it will act like 4G with the only example being one of the things that 5G actually dramatically improves.
    - Some garbage about 5G only being 5G if it works in short range.
    - Other garbage about 5G not being 5G unless it is in the mm-band.

    It's like this site has giv

  • It's launching a low-band 5G...

    So... 4G?

  • Seriously. I just purchased a new phone, LG G8. Like it, so I don't care what others think. But I don't think it is 5g ready. I honestly don't care. Even when I am streaming video, it is fast enough. And if it buffers, that is because connectivity sucks. How many other phones out there are 5g ready?

    With that said, I do agree with the posters that asked. Who will notice the difference?

    • Who will notice the difference?

      Maybe read the reply to those posters. Everyone with a 5G phone in a densely congested airspace. The underlying technology provides many improvements even on low bands.

  • If the screeching high pitch whine bothers you, it can fall back to 5G.

    When that overheats and sets you on fire, it falls back 4G so you can call 911 on whatever rickety bullshit that's still made out of.

  • I don't want faster internet speeds on my phone, and I don't think many people do either. What I would like to see is more coverage, better service and less cost. The biggest problem is in 20 years from now, there will be very little innovation in phones, computers, ect. At some point in time people need to make devices that last and services that cost less.

    • I could care less too. Much less. Which is why I'm excited for 5G.

      I assume your understanding of 5G and it's benefits is as good as your grasp of the English language since it almost seems like you *couldn't* care less and think the only thing 5G gives you is speed.

    • "I don't want faster internet speeds on my phone, and I don't think many people do either."

      The assumption that one's own needs and desires are representative of the vast majority of others is a common failing. You can hear it all the time: "Everyone thinks ..."

      I've lived and worked in places where if you can't get it on your phone you simply can't get it. There are countries where communications infrastructure is based on fixed wireless terminals. There are statistically significant numbers of people for wh

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