AT&T's 5G Network Goes Nationwide With No Extra Cost on Unlimited Plans

Having launched preliminary 5G services using millimeter wave hardware in late 2018, AT&T has technically been operating a 5G network for a year and a half -- but between the "5G+" network's few connection points and extremely limited hardware support, most people in the U.S. couldn't actually use it. Today, AT&T says its low band 5G network is officially available nationwide, reaching a potential 205 million customers across 395 coverage markets. From a report: The carrier is also making 5G service available to a wider range of customers at no additional charge. On a positive note, AT&T is now the second U.S. carrier with a nationwide 5G network, joining T-Mobile, which launched a similarly large offering in December 2019 using long distance but slow low band towers. But T-Mobile's low band 5G peaks at speeds around 225Mbps, nowhere near the 2Gbps peaks seen in Verizon's all but unusably small 5G network, while promising only a 20% improvement over 4G speeds on average. AT&T's low band 5G network is expected to deliver comparable performance but is using a technology called DSS to dynamically split prior 4G spectrum between 4G and 5G phones as user demand fluctuates.

unlimited plans = 22GB of full speed data

[Joe_Dragon]

unlimited plans = 22GB of full speed data

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[Calydor]

So at 2 gbps you get what, a minute and a half at the most per month?

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[williamyf]

So, if you read http://m.slashdot.org/ [slashdot.org] on 5G the page consumes more bandwidth than if you browse it on 3G?

The answer is no. It does not consume more bandwith, it just loads faster*, and with less lag.

So, if in 4G you did not hit your data caps, and if you still browse with the same habits, there is no reason to hit your datacaps in 5G either.

Granted, if due to the added bandwith you start to browse differently (like watching 4K-HDR-120 content on you phone instead of your run of the mill 1080p@60, and tripl

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[CastrTroy]

Some things do take more data when you have higher bandwidth. Many video streaming services will automatically detect your network speed and adjust accordingly.

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[arglebargle_xiv]

Naah, it's going to take a lot more than a minute and a half, this is "AT&T 5G", not what most people would understand as 5G.

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[WankerWeasel]

Should clarify, at guarantees full speed. After that you MAY see throttling if there's network congestion. Many of us have never seen any throttling even +50GB into a month because there's rarely congestion in most areas.

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[Presence Eternal]

Excellent, they finally received the final shipment of 5G stickers to plaster over those pesky 4G LTE logos.

When posting about mobile plans

[bobstreo]

always use the term "Unlimited" as it may be misunderstood as actually meaning Unlimited....

ATT is dishonest

[Puls4r]

This just goes back to the post yesterday that ATT is a freakin dishonest company. My wife's phone started flashing the 5G icon - but it doesn't have a 5G radio. How can that be? Oh right - ATT's 5G isn't 5G.... it's just a little bit added to LTE.
https://www.cmple.com/learn/at... [cmple.com]

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[ArchieBunker]

Lol it was a warning message from a rouge tech at AT&T. He has been dealt with.

pfft

[the_skywise]

I've had 5Ge on my iPhone 11 for a year or so you luddie pleebs. (And STILL do even though I'm supposed to be one of the markets that has 5G)

ATT is the biggest pack of lames evar

[drinkypoo]

We signed up to get DSL. They installed it two days late, to the wrong apartment.

We called them and they showed up a day late, then did nothing.

Repeat that last step twice.

Now they're billing us.

Fuck ATT sideways. Fuck them all day. Fuck them two times baby, fuck them twice today.

AT&T uses DSS to share spectrum between 4G and

[BBF_BBF]

So pretty much by sharing the same spectrum and base stations for 4G and 5G, the 4G, or as AT&T calls them, 5Ge users will slow down the 5G users. Just like having 802.11n wireless devices and 802.11ac devices on the same network will slow the AC devices down. https://www.ericsson.com/en/ne... [ericsson.com]

If you want a cheap plan

[Krishnoid]

If you don't need unlimited data, there are some $15-$25/month plans with unlimited talk and text that use major providers' networks.

Some of these are:

• T-Mobile Connect [t-mobile.com]
• Mint Mobile (T-Mobile's network), featuring Ryan Reynolds [mintmobile.com] and
• Consumer Cellular (T-Mobile/ATT network), apparently with good customer support [consumercellular.com], which is probably not that difficult in this field.

And considering T-Mobile has an order of magnitude more 5G-covered cities [soylentnews.org], AT&T may really need to step up their game.

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[plague911]

I've been on Mint Mobile for about 4 ish years now and have no **** idea why anyone would use anything else. Im paying $20/month for 8 GB and it would be $43/month if I had 4 fricking lines for T-mobile. WTF

Be realistic

[markdavis]

>"joining T-Mobile, which launched a similarly large offering in December 2019 using long distance but slow low band towers. But T-Mobile's low band 5G peaks at speeds around 225Mbps"

I would MUCH rather have what T-Mobile is doing than ultrafast no-range stuff. 225Mbps is extremely fast. I don't care about 2Gbps- even most of my BACKBONES at work aren't that fast, much less to the end devices. I know it will be important for some time waaaay into the future when we "need" 3D holographic video calls.