AT&T Lights Fire Under 5G, Plans 2016 Trials

“Ultimately as an integrated carrier we have a lot of incentive to (add) any new technology (to our) footprint, particularly if that 5G for fixed usage has better economics than fiber in certain locales”.

Not to be outdone by Verizon, AT&T just announced that it will also start preparing its network for the next, 5G wireless data standard, whenever its final characteristics are ironed out.

“We expect 5G to deliver speeds 10-100 times faster than today’s average 4G LTE connections”, AT&T said in laying out its roadmap for deployment.

Verizon and AT&T are starting trials for 5G this year, it’ll be interesting to see who rolls it out commercially first, and to what markets first. For reference, at one gigabit per second, you can download a TV show in less than 3 seconds.

AT&T and Verizon are keen on developing a strong 5G position not just to keep up with each other, but also to keep Google at bay. Latency, for example, is how long it takes after you press play on a video app for the video to start streaming on your device.

Testing of the 5G systems is expected to take about a year to debug, with another year planned for getting hardware in place across the United States and switching customers over to the updated spectrums.

Although most industry experts say 5G won’t become widely available until 2020, that doesn’t stop the carriers from laying the groundwork.

AT&T is hoping that they will be able to use the results from these trials to develop 5G standards along with the ITU.

AT&T recently told re/code that they will start tests in the first half of the year, they are working with Intel and Ericsson on the tests.

“New experiences like virtual reality, self-driving cars, robotics, smart cities…are about to test networks like never before”, AT&T Chief Strategy Officer John Donovan said.

The company noted that its wireless data traffic grew more than 150,000 percent from 2007 through 2015, driven largely by video.

“Technologies such as millimeter waves, network function virtualization (NFV), and software-defined networking (SDN) will be among the key ingredients for future 5G experiences”.

AT&T Inc.is joining the mobile speed race with Verizon Communications Inc., outlining plans for faster wireless technology to meet the increasing demand for sports, movies and even smartphone access to home appliances.

AT&T’s fixed 5G tests into the home are seen by the provider as a potential high speed broadband alternative.

Whenever 5G comes online, AT&T and Verizon will be among the first telecom operators in the United States to offer that to customers.