Tag: AT&T

What is the Current 5G Experience in the U.S?

Over the course of 3 months (Mar 16 – Jun 13, 2022), OpenSignal gathered 5G data points from each of the major U.S. cellular carriers – Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. This data was put into a report they call the 5G Experience Report, and it was just released. Big surprise…it shows T-Mobile as the winner in most categories. Check out the overall results below.

Taking a closer look, each category was analyzed at the national and regional levels. T-Mobile won with Download speeds over 98Mbps faster than Verizon and AT&T. Overall, the total was 171Mbps. This is T-Mobile’s sixth win in a row. The Upload speed tests were a bit closer, with only a 3Mbps difference between T-Mobile and Verizon. T-Mobile’s total was 17.8Mbps, and again, this was their sixth time in a row to win this category. Verizon and AT&T customers may still want to be hopeful though. They are the only two carriers that are using C-Band deployments. As these deployments increase, we suspect these reports may change. Still, T-Mobile has quite a lead.

Not only do T-Mobile customers receive the best overall speeds, but they can also access them in more places than other carriers’ networks. OpenSignal confirms this by awarding T-Mobile with the best 5G Reach. The report also confirms that T-Mobile has the best 5G Availability. It shows that T-Mobile customers were connected to 5G 2 times more often than AT&T customers, and over 3 times more often than Verizon customers.

With regards to testing 5G Games experience and Voice App experience, the point scale was 0 to 100. This is where Verizon won out against the others, but all were within a small margin. 

According to OpenSignal, “a good Games experience means that the gameplay experience was generally controllable and users received immediate feedback between their actions and the outcomes in the game. Most users did not experience a delay between their actions and the game.”

You may also be wondering what qualifies a good 5G Voice App Experience too. These tests “quantify the experience of Opensignal users when using over-the-top voice apps — such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — on an operator’s 5G network. It uses a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality.”

Want to know more about OpenSignal’s metrics and what they mean? Check out their article here.

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Who Has the Best Mobile Network?

T-Mobile does it for the second year in a row – they’ve beat out Verizon and AT&T in recent tests performed by the PCMag team. They’ve been running these “Fastest Mobile Network” tests for the past 12 years and with this year came some changes. They opted for electric vehicles for the more than 10,000 mile drive across the country. They used new software that tracks dropped calls and provides a better measure of reliability. Also, while previous years were in search of America’s fastest mobile network, they are now on the search for the best network. 

Using the Samsung Galaxy S22+ phone, the team stopped in 30 cities and six rural regions where they compared performance between AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Of these 30 cities, T-Mobile won in 18, Verizon won in eight and AT&T won in four. According to the team, “We use people, not square miles, to determine our scores. Rural areas comprise 16% of our score, similar to the 14-20% of the US population classified as rural.”

The reason for using the Samsung Galaxy over other 5G phones? PCMag said, “We’re using the Samsung Galaxy S22+ because it has shown the best network performance in our tests. With its Qualcomm X65 modem, the S22+ can hold onto weak signals longer than phones from previous years, and it supports all the new 5G bands carriers are implementing, including the frequencies AT&T is launching later this year.”

Due to the new software used this time around, the results aren’t directly comparable to those from previous years. For example, both T-Mobile and Verizon see dramatically increased nationwide speeds this year as they expand their mid-band 5G networks. However, as AT&T’s speeds decline, it has added very little capacity while data demands grew.

Looking closer at those speed results, T-Mobile also won here, specifically in upload and download speeds. The carrier was the fastest in 19 cities out of 30, compared to Verizon with nine and AT&T with two. PCMag also reported that T-Mobile is performing better in rural areas, but explained that it still has more rural dead zones in the Northeast than Verizon and AT&T do.

So how exactly is it that T-Mobile was capable of these wins? Their mid-band 5G network. This is what the carrier built from Sprint’s network after acquiring the company for $26 billion in 2020. They’ve also begun using carrier aggregation within the mid-band network to achieve faster speeds. 

For Verizon and AT&T, they are still working on closing the gap by utilizing mid-band spectrum they obtained in a recent FCC auction. Verizon has already gotten started with its 5G network, but AT&T has been waiting for the equipment required to build it out. AT&T hopes to have more 5G network service up and running by next year.

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When Will the FAA Allow 5G Enhancements Around Airports?

It has been months since Verizon and AT&T agreed to temporarily limit their 5G expansion plans due to concerns about how the new wireless standard could interfere with aircraft tools. All this time, the Federal Aviation Administration has been working with the cellular carriers to find a solution to using 5G safely at and around airports. They are currently in a “phased approach” to the 5G launch.

On Friday, they all reached an agreement that will allow the carriers to expand their 5G service around some airports while continuing to temporarily hold off elsewhere. This will allow companies time to retrofit their aircrafts with equipment that is less susceptible to 5G interference. Part of the plan is to have those with the most vulnerable (to 5G interference) regional aircrafts be required to retrofit the planes with radio frequency filters by the end of the year.

As both the FAA and carriers work together they have also identified certain airports near which the telecommunications companies will be able to enhance their service with the least risk of causing disruptions to flight schedules.

Per the press release, acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said, “We believe we have identified a path that will continue to enable aviation and 5G C-band wireless to safely co-exist.” 

The latest release noted that AT&T and Verizon had previously agreed to limit the service until July 5 and have since offered “to continue with some level of voluntary mitigations for another year.” When that time is up, it’s expected that airlines and other operators will be done with the work required to enhance their aircraft with the appropriate equipment. This would then allow the wireless companies “to operate their networks in urban areas with minimal restrictions.” 

“Today’s announcement identifies a path forward that will enable Verizon to make full use of our C-Band spectrum for 5G around airports on an accelerated and defined schedule,” Verizon Chief Administrative Officer Craig Silliman said in the Friday press release. “Under this agreement reached with the FAA, we will lift the voluntary limitations on our 5G network deployment around airports in a staged approach over the coming months meaning even more consumers and businesses will benefit from the tremendous capabilities of 5G technology.”

An AT&T spokesperson also commented, stating that the company is moving toward seeing all voluntary restrictions lapse by next summer.

“Through close coordination with the FAA over the last several months, we have developed a more tailored approach to controlling signal strength around runways that allows us to activate more towers and increase signal strength,” the AT&T spokesperson said. “Though our FCC licenses allow us to fully deploy much-needed C-Band spectrum right now, we have chosen in good faith to implement these more tailored precautionary measures so that airlines have additional time to retrofit equipment.”

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How AT&T’s 5G Network is Contributing to the Department of Defense

AT&T has been implementing 5G service and showcasing its benefits in different areas. Most recently they demonstrated how a Naval “Smart Warehouse” could be created using a variety of 5G-powered technology solutions. During demonstrations, the team working on the project found AT&T’s private 5G network delivered data throughput speeds of 3.9 gigabits per second. The latency was less than 10 milliseconds.

Back in October 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced $600 million would be given in awards for 5G experimentation and testing at five U.S. military test sites. This would represent the largest full-scale 5G tests for dual-use applications in the world. 

One of those locations was Naval Base Coronado in San Diego. This is where the smart warehouse concept is being showcased. The goal is to increase the efficiency and fidelity of naval logistic operations including identification, recording, organization, storage, retrieval, and the transportation of material and supplies.

Thanks to AT&T’s 5G network, DoD has the ability to scale its 5G-enabled smart warehouse solution. It also supports global access for DoD users via roaming capabilities used with AT&T’s network infrastructure. This allows DoD to benefit from AT&T’s commercial investments in its network and avoid costly additional network builds.

“This is a key example of organizations coming together in a collaborative environment with our Armed Forces to explore the art of the possible in 5G,” said Amanda Toman, acting Principal Director of 5G-NextG, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Research & Engineering. “We’re not just building for the warfighter; we are also innovating with the American citizen in mind. DoD is working to accelerate the development and deployment of 5G-enabled capabilities across many use cases while ensuring those systems — as well as those of our allies and partners — are robust, protected, and reliable.”

What 5G solutions were demonstrated? 

There was a focus on the 5G Radio Access Network and its optimization of warehouse operations via increased throughput of data, internet of things (IoT) support, and low latency. Among the prototype use cases demonstrated were:

  • 5G-enabled VR/AR capabilities to support military training and operations
  • 5G-powered high-definition video surveillance
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning use cases that use AT&T 5G in a cloud environment.
  • 5G-enabled AR to support advanced put/pick technology operated via a hands-free mobile device
  • Zero Trust Architecture cybersecurity support

For more information, check out the official announcement from AT&T. You can also read the related Department of Defense announcement by clicking here.

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Providing Service During Natural Disasters – How AT&T is Testing 5G on Drones

An AT&T drone equipped with 5G network hardware (source: AT&T)

For the past few years, AT&T has provided cellular coverage at disaster sites around the U.S. They run the network behind FirstNet, a service for first responders. When their services are needed they typically provide this via trucks called COWs (cell on wheels). 

In the more recent years, the carrier expanded to using a fleet of flying COWs (cell on wings). These flying COWs are drones that are capable of providing coverage to larger areas and are therefore more effective. 

Just last month, AT&T started testing its first flying COWs with 5G service rather than LTE. Tests took place in a remote area of Missouri where no other services are available. 

In an exclusive interview with CNET, Art Pregler, AT&T’s drone leader, said it was challenging to find a location without their service. 

“We were trying to find an area where there was no signal at all so we could be assured that all the signal we were capturing was from our drone,” said Pregler.

As AT&T prepares their flying COWs to be available in about a month, they are also upgrading some fiber optic tethers. This is what links the drones to the trucks that serve as communication and power bases.

Pregler says the drones are staged in warehouses and ready for use now. He added, “We have them on the West Coast for fire season, in the Southeast for hurricane season and in the Midwest for flood season.”

With a focus more on coverage and availability over maximizing speeds, AT&T reported their first 5G flying COW test showed results of 10 square miles of coverage. This is with the drone hovering at 300 feet up.  At this distance, the drone connected to a satellite and provided download speeds of 46Mbps and upload speeds of 71Mbps.

Pregler recalled the Hurricanes in 2017 and 2018 when they used the flying COWs to provide network service to first responders on the ground. He noted, “For a while we were the only network that was operational there at ground zero.” 

Since 2018, both Verizon and T-Mobile have also invested in preparation for disasters. In 2021, Verizon debuted their large mobile 5G base station truck they named Thor.  For T-Mobile, they currently use portable network vehicles, satellite cells on wheels and satellite cells on light trucks. The uncarrier is improving their operations now and adding backup generators for when there is loss of power.  

AT&T expects they’ll be utilizing the high-frequency radio waves called millimeter wave, or mmWave. These frequencies allow for a larger increase in data transfer speeds. Though the range is shorter, they can see speeds beyond 1Gbps.

The flying COWs won’t use mmWave for connecting your smartphone but will use it to help strengthen the network overall, Pregler said. mmWave connections will allow multiple drones to connect via a sort of mesh network in the sky, which will extend the flying COW coverage.

There are six different ways that the COW technology itself can connect to the network. According to Pregler, this includes fiber optic links and satellites in low Earth orbit or higher in geostationary orbit.

As climate change continues to take its toll on the world, AT&T will keep implementing improvements and advances where possible. We can only hope that the other carriers will do so as well. Good news is that Verizon just announced how 5G can help detect and even prevent wildfires. According to the news article:

Minsait, a European company, is currently testing a solution that takes steps in this direction. Its system uses solar-powered, 360-degree cameras to look for smoke in a 2-kilometer range and uses sensors to detect conditions such as humidity, temperature, wind and dew point. The cameras are AI-enabled to analyze all the data at the edge and can transmit alerts as needed.

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How Do Cellular Home Internet Services Compare?

After roughly a year of getting their 5G home Internet services rolled out, both Verizon and T-Mobile are not only increasing their coverage areas, but their customer base as well. Just recently, T-Mobile reported they had expanded their service’s availability from 30 to 40 million households. For Verizon, they had announced back in January that their service reaches 20 million households.  

AT&T doesn’t have 5G home internet, but it does offer a 4G LTE option to rural customers and businesses. UScellular has also been working on its own 5G home Internet too, but it’s still very limited. 

In comparison, Verizon offers the fastest potential speeds for both downloads and uploads, yet T-Mobile‘s service is more widely available. Right now, we only have a max download speed for UScellular, but expect to see more results in the future. 

With both, keep in mind that your average 5G speeds will vary based on your location and coverage. And yeah, AT&T’s 4G home internet is abysmally slow.

Download Speeds

  • T-Mobile = 33 to 182 Mbps
  • Verizon = 85 to 1,000 Mbps
  • AT&T (4G Only) = 10 to 25 Mbps
  • UScellular = up to 300 Mbps

Upload Speeds

  • T-Mobile = 8 to 25 Mbps
  • Verizon = 10 to 50 Mbps
  • AT&T (4G Only) = up to 1 Mbps

Something to keep in mind about these speeds – at least with Verizon – is you must sign up for the 5G Home Plus plan to gain access to speeds between 300 to 1000 Mbps. 

Aside from reasonable pricing options, both Verizon and T-Mobile offer trial periods to test the service. T-Mobile allows for 15 days, while Verizon allows for 30 days. Here’s an outline of some comparisons between T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T plans (we’re still waiting on UScellular to release more details):

5G home internet detailsT-MobileVerizonAT&T
Price with cellular plan$30/month$25-35/month$59.99/month
Price without cellular plan$50/month$50-70/month$69.99/month
Contract❌❌❌
Taxes and feesIncludedIncludedExtra
Data cap❌❌350 GB
Self-setup✅✅❌
Installation fee❌❌$99
Price lockLifetime2-3 years❌

Given the information, it may still be difficult for those of us with access to wired broadband services to switch to cellular. However, with the pricing, it could very well make up for the slower bandwidth. Or you might consider adding it as a backup to your broadband service if you cannot afford any downtime. Either way, there’s options with risk free trials so check them out today!

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Does T-Mobile Still Have the Fastest 5G?

You may be familiar with Ookla, or their famous speedtest.net website that lets users easily test their Internet connection’s latency and download and upload speeds. They also run quarterly reports comparing the results between different Internet providers, both fixed and mobile. 

We’d like to highlight the mobile results only. This first quarter’s results were just released Monday and they compare median download speed, median latency, consistency score, and availability. 

Results reveal T-Mobile is still in the lead, and at the top of each category tested. The only change is that the gap between T-Mobile and Verizon has lessened. Here are just some results; median download speeds:

  1. T-Mobile: 191.12Mbps (up from 187.12Mbps)
  2. Verizon: 107.25Mbps (up from 78.52Mbps)
  3. AT&T: 68.43Mbps (down from 68.82Mbps)

With regards to testing by state and city, Minnesota took the top spot for fastest median mobile download speed during Q1 2022 at 92.31 Mbps. Overall, T-Mobile was the fastest mobile provider in 42 states. Results were too close to call in 6 states. 

St. Paul, Minnesota had the fastest median mobile download speed among the 100 most populous cities in the U.S. Speeds topped out at 136.72 Mbps. T-Mobile was the fastest operator in 78 of these cities. Verizon Wireless was the fastest provider in 10 cities, and US Cellular was fastest in one city (Madison, WI). The results were statistically too close to call in 11 cities.

Per T-Mobile news, their President of Technology has this to say about today’s win: 

“Our 5G network is delivering a powerful performance boost and it’s resonating, with over 40% of our customers now using a 5G device, accounting for more than HALF of our network traffic. And we’re just getting started – this leading network experience will continue to improve as we accelerate our 5G build this year and beyond.”

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Will Cellular Carriers Continue to Invest in mmWave?

Many of the cellular carriers are, or have dedicated a large portion of their capex budgets this year, but this doesn’t mean that millimeter wave (mmWave) 5G deployments are done. Mobile Experts, in a recent report, say that it expects mmWave investments will return in late 2023 and 2024.

Companies like Verizon and AT&T have spent billions this year and will continue to next year, all in effort to deploy 5G in their C-band spectrum. Looking at numbers, Verizon is expected to dedicate about $5 billion toward C-band this year and AT&T said it will spend $6 billion in 2023, much of which will go to C-band. 

Dan McNamara, principal analyst with Mobile Experts, expects carriers will need to cover more locations with mmWave as data on the C-Band 5G networks increases. He says this because one of the fundamental values of mmWave 5G is that it offers huge capacity gains and delivers high data rates.

“The good news about C-band is that there is a lot of investment in it. And as it gets rolled out, customers will see their phones get faster and that will get them excited,” he said, adding that at this point he believes customers will flock to 5G because the difference between 4G and 5G will be much more evident.  

“The current systems will see data consumption rise,” he said. “And in areas where that data consumption gets higher, the operators will support that through mmWave.”

McNamara went on to say that we may hear a lot about 5G deployments in the U.S., but it’s still a relatively new technology. “Lots of countries have not deployed it [5G] yet,” he said, noting that because of this many consumers haven’t experienced the benefits of 5G.   

Per McNamara, manufacturers of 5G radios are working to integrate multiple radios into one antenna. This could mean the difference of installing one antenna that supports multiple networks (LTE and 5G C-Band) versus having to fit multiple radios together. This would also lower the number of permits and approvals that carriers require to deploy their network. 

“This solves some of the operator pain points that are beyond just pure technology,” McNamara said.

The Dell ‘Oro Group also commented on this subject, noting that the 5G capex cycle will be longer than past generations of wireless. This includes LTE. According to the group, the reason 5G’s cycle will be longer is because of all the different spectrum bands that are being used for 5G from mmWave to 2.5 GHz, C-band, 6 GHz and more.

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How AT&T is Helping Pave the Road to 6G

With 5G networking becoming more widely available, we’re now learning more about future technologies – 5G Advanced and 6G. 

According to AT&T news, AT&T has asked the FCC for two, two-year experimental licenses that will be used to “demonstrate the functionality and capabilities” of these newer wireless systems. 

The carrier will be performing tests out of Austin, TX. Coincidentally, Austin is home to the University of Texas at Austin’s 6G research center, which is supported by AT&T and other companies like Samsung and Qualcomm.

“The advances in both wireless communications and machine learning over the past decade have been incredible, but separate,” said 6G@UT Director Jeffrey Andrews, a professor in UT Austin’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in a press release. “Coupled with vast new sensing and localization abilities, 6G will be defined by an unprecedented native intelligence, which will transform the ability of the network to provide incredible services.”

AT&T’s application will be to use the spectrum licenses for testing communications between mobile units and fixed base stations. These units will be placed both indoors and outdoors. Tests will be performed to verify if wireless links can be established between the base stations and the mobile user equipment at distances up to 5 kilometers. Their end goal is to gain valuable insights into how to optimize next-generation cloud-native architectures and technologies as well as develop new use cases using multi-Gbps throughput.

The licenses AT&T is asking for include the following spectrum bands:

  • 5.9 GHz to 8.4 GHz
  • 10.7 GHz to 15.35 GHz
  • 92 GHz to 100 GHz

The equipment used with these licenses must operate within higher spectrum bands. This includes the sub-Terahertz (THz) band, which is between 95 GHz and 3 THz. This band was made available for experimental licenses in March 2019 by the FCC. It was done as part of the agency’s Spectrum Horizons First Report and Order. 

The THz spectrum offers more benefits than GHz. It’s capable of delivering data-intensive, high bandwidth applications at super-fast speeds for a short distance. Similar to the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum though, a signal traveling in THz spectrum can only travel a short distance (typically between 100 to 150 meters). It has yet to be fully tested, but some believe the signal will be impacted by environmental conditions.

AT&T was not the first company seeking to use the FCC’s Spectrum Horizons experimental licenses. Test and measurement company Keysight Technologies was granted the first FCC Spectrum Horizons experimental license for sub-THz frequency bands. This was announced back in March. They weren’t specific, but the company said it would be using the license to develop 6G technology.

3GPP, a standards organization, is also working on 6G standards and is expected to be released after the next several years. It’s also expected that 6G will incorporate advanced antenna technologies as well as more efficient coding and modulation schemes and will likely deliver multi-gigabit download and upload speeds. Most of the industry players anticipate that 6G will incorporate sub-THz and THz spectrum.

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How AT&T 5G and Northrop Grumman Corp. Are Helping the DoD

Northrop Grumman Corporation, a technology company, and AT&T have started a collaboration with the goal of researching and developing a digital battle network. This would be in an effort to support the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and powered by AT&T 5G and Northrop Grumman’s advanced mission systems.  

Northrop Grumman and AT&T’s plan is based on a cost-effective, scalable, open architecture solution. They will help the DoD connect distributed sensors, shooters and data from all domains, terrains and forces – think of it like how your smart devices connect and share data from our day to day activities. 

This digital battle network is expected to bring together the high speeds, low latency and cybersecurity protections of private 5G networks with the flexibility and scalability of AT&T’s commercial 5G capabilities. It will also offer a critical capability to support the DoD’s vision for Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2).

“Our collaboration with AT&T brings together some of the best capabilities in defense and commercial communications to meet the evolving requirements of JADC2,” said Ben Davies, vice president and general manager, Networked Information Solutions division, Northrop Grumman. “The enhanced connectivity and networking of information that 5G provides are a great advantage in a military environment and will help the DoD in the development of high-performing and intuitive technologies that quickly and seamlessly share data across a myriad of secure networks.”

“Our 5G capabilities can help the Department of Defense achieve operational and information advantage when it matters most – protecting our country and freedoms around the globe,” said Lance Spencer, Client Executive Vice President-Defense, AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet. “By bringing our 5G services together with Northrop Grumman’s powerful avionics and defense systems, we expect to create an ideal platform to deliver DoD’s JADC2 vision.”

The agreement establishes a joint research and development framework to prototype, demonstrate and test AT&T’s commercial 5G networking capabilities integrated with Northrop Grumman’s robust portfolio of capabilities that are at the forefront of military technological advancement that enable the Joint Force. For more information, visit Northrop Grumman’s JADC2 webpage or go here to learn more about AT&T’s work in the public sector.

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