AT&T Demos the Extreme Speeds of 5G

AT&T has been working with small businesses in three US cities over the past year to trial their 5G network (which they plan to deploy in 12 cities by the end of the year), and today they released the results of some of their testing:

 

  • In Waco, Texas, AT&T 5G speeds were 1.2Gbps from 500 feet over a 400MHz channel, with 9-12 millisecond latency.
  • In Kalamazoo, Michigan, they saw 1Gbps speeds at 900 feet (275 meters) in “line of sight” conditions.
  • From their South Bend, Indiana, tests, no specific speeds were reported, but reported “gigabit wireless speeds” in line of sight and “some nonline of sight” conditions.

Other interesting notes from the release were that there appeared to be no negative impact from rain or snow, and large numbers of users were connected during the tests. They also reported that signals can penetrate “significant foliage, glass and even walls” even better than they had expected.

AT&T’s tests are definitely very promising, and we can’t wait to see the network deployed to the public!

 

By 5G, 5G News

The UK Behind in 5G Race

With original expectations surpassed in the previous 5G spectrum auction in the UK, it would appear that carriers are pushing towards deploying the technology. They are… but they are lagging behind the rest of the world.

Read more here.

By 5G

UK Study Shows Potential Impact of 5G on Universities

While the whole world is eager to see what 5G can do, no country seems more excited than the UK. Various UK departments and agencies have put together reports studying how 5G can benefit the public, and while the research obviously centers around their local communities and industries, the conclusions and data can still be used to assist researchers and officials in projecting the impact of 5G here in the US.

At a recent networking conference, Andy Sutton, visiting professor in the School of Computing, Science and Engineering at the University of Salford, presented his views on how 5G will change campuses. Among other benefits, he heralded the fact that 5G’s promised speeds and reduced latency could make remote learning more accessible.

Read more

By 5G

UK Plans for Large Scale Urban 5G Test Project

The UK government has set their sights on 5G as a tool to increase safety, communication, and efficiency in communities. To see how 5G can benefit real-world communities, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is looking for a city with a popular of at least 500,000 people in which a 5G network can be launched. Digital minister Margot James said: “This is a huge opportunity for an urban area to become the flagship of our ambitious programme to make Britain fit for the future and a world leader in 5G. Trialling 5G at scale across an entire city is a chance to prove the economic benefits predicted from this new technology, test different methods of deployment, and boost the connectivity of ordinary people working and living there.”

Read more about the UK’s test plans

By 5G

Where is 5G in Canada?

US carriers have all announced their dates for 5G rollouts, with each carrier looking to be the first to announce a new market or speed breakthrough. Canadian carriers, however, have been uncharacteristically quiet amid the flood of US news on the subject.

Read more here.

By 5G

Public 5G Powered Networks

Australian carrier Telstra debuts two 5G public networks… but users are reporting 4G speeds. Though each public hotspot is capable of pushing 3Gbps, users that are connected to the public WiFi are only seeing speeds around 100Mbps max. While 100Mbps is nothing to complain about, its not quite the massive 5G speeds that have been talked about for years.

Read the full article here.

By 5G

Will 5G be impacted by same security flaws seen in 2G, 3G, and 4G?

While most of the world is looking towards 5G as a huge improvement over previous generations in every way, the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) is concerned about security flaws. In their report, ENISA noted that “there is a certain risk of repeating history” if 5G networks uses the same signaling protocols used in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile. Known flaws in the SS7 and Diameter signalling protocols have allowed traffic to be eavesdropped, spoofed, or intercepted by attackers, and there are concerns that 5G networks may use the same or similar protocols – although that remains to be seen at this stage.

Read more

By 5G

AT&T Plans Rollout of 60,000 White Box Routers for 5G

While Verizon has been making the most noise when it comes to US carriers discussing their 5G plans, AT&T is not sitting idly by. This week AT&T announced their plans to being rolling out 60,000 5G “white box” routers at its cell towers over the next few years.

In their statement, they explained that AT&T is “transitioning from the traditional, proprietary routers that sit inside these structures to new hardware that’s built around open standards and can be quickly upgraded via software.” They went on to explain how their move to open source operating systems and “white box” routers will mean decreased latency at the network edge, as well as easier upgrades and updates in the future.

By 5G