AT&T Announces Plans to Start Rolling Out a True 5G Network by the End of 2018

[Paynefanbro]

Yikes! T-Mobile shouldn't have spoken so soon about deploying 5G nationwide before VZW and AT&T. It'll only be a dozen cities by year end but nonetheless, I wouldn't be surprised if AT&T fast-tracked this roll out just to spite T-Mobile. I'm expecting a similar announcement from VZW very soon.

Source: AT&T announces plans to start rolling out a true 5G network by the end of 2018

[belusnecropolis]

Good find @Paynefanbro. I expect the initial service to start naturally, in the cities they trial fixed wireless in. Good on Tmobile, pushing their hand if that is the reason. They do have an 8 billion dollar 600 MHz interest to market, so that may be a factor for all the hype. Plus cellular, companies love to hop on the next thing. I hope this makes a faster time to reach the masses then LTE did.

Also; Ha! I'm still waiting for Five Gee Evolution. 

Source: My sad ATT branded Netgear Nighthawk M1 (Cat 16, 4x4 external antennae) 

[danlodish345]

2 hours ago, belusnecropolis said:

Good find @Paynefanbro. I expect the initial service to start naturally, in the cities they trial fixed wireless in. Good on Tmobile, pushing their hand if that is the reason. They do have an 8 billion dollar 600 MHz interest to market, so that may be a factor for all the hype. Plus cellular, companies love to hop on the next thing. I hope this makes a faster time to reach the masses then LTE did.

Also; Ha! I'm still waiting for Five Gee Evolution. 

Source: My sad ATT branded Netgear Nighthawk M1 (Cat 16, 4x4 external antennae) 

I’m just interested to see who rolls it out quicker. T-Mobile still doesn’t have the cash flow that the other two have. So I would definitely be interested to see who beats T-Mobile to the punch first.

[ericdabbs]

Yikes! T-Mobile shouldn't have spoken so soon about deploying 5G nationwide before VZW and AT&T. It'll only be a dozen cities by year end but nonetheless, I wouldn't be surprised if AT&T fast-tracked this roll out just to spite T-Mobile. I'm expecting a similar announcement from VZW very soon.
Source: AT&T announces plans to start rolling out a true 5G network by the end of 2018

But i thought the argument was that the official 5G standards by the 3GPP wouldnt be officially ratified until 2019 which is what Tmobile is calling BS on ATT claiming it will have true 5G. So how can ATT really have true 5G when it will not be approved until 2019? This has been known since mid 2017 that ATT put out a press release that claims that they will be the first 5G carrier to deploy. In fact Legere made a tweet or comment calling out ATT on this. This is not new news but ehhhh time will tell.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Paynefanbro]

16 minutes ago, ericdabbs said:

But i thought the argument was that the official 5G standards by the 3GPP wouldnt be officially ratified until 2019 which is what Tmobile is calling BS on ATT claiming it will have true 5G. So how can ATT really have true 5G when it will not be approved until 2019? This has been known since mid 2017 that ATT put out a press release that claims that they will be the first 5G carrier to deploy. In fact Legere made a tweet or comment calling out ATT on this. This is not new news but ehhhh time will tell.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

The first 5G NR spec was agreed upon by the 3GPP on December 20th. It was supposed to be done in summer 2018 but they moved up the timeline and finished it early. It mentions in the article that AT&T was one of the carriers pushing heavily for 5G NR to be standardized early.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/3gpp-declares-first-5g-nr-spec-complete

[tybo31316]

Someone’s going to jump too soon like Sprint did with WiMAX and get burned.

[ericdabbs]

45 minutes ago, tybo31316 said:

Someone’s going to jump too soon like Sprint did with WiMAX and get burned.

Agreed.  I could care less if AT&T is the first to jump into the 5G space.  I hope the others wait for better 5G equipment to deploy.  Tmobile has their hands full in trying to clear the 600 MHz band and working with the 3.5 GHz trials that I would expect this to not be a huge deal.  We will see how long it really takes AT&T since they took a delayed approach with LTE.

[Paynefanbro]

1 hour ago, tybo31316 said:

Someone’s going to jump too soon like Sprint did with WiMAX and get burned.

I disagree because I think all of the carriers have learned from that blunder. It seems like pretty much every carrier is settled on 5G NR and both AT&T and VZW have similar timeframes for deployment. Both of those carriers have enough clout to sway the entire industry toward 5G NR and even if they were wrong (which I am super doubtful they are), they have a large enough safety net that they could switch to a different technology faster than Sprint ever could during the days of WiMax.

On top of that AT&T, China Mobile, China Telecom, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom, Sprint, Telefonica, T-Mobile USA, Verizon, and Vodafone have all shown support for 5G NR.

Source

[lilotimz]

I mean Verizon is deploying so called "5G" via higher order MIMO (4x4 MIMO / massive mimo + CA on all bands) & newer better performing antennas in addition to split sectors here. I doubt any carrier is ready to deploy NR anytime soon as most of it is appears to be backward compatible as software enhancement to a lot of existing equipment in addition to not being finished in terms of what will be in the final revision. 

If anything, I imagine whatever ATT does will mirror that of verizon which makes sense considering both have been undergoing another  full site revision to 4x4 MIMO via new radios and antennas. ATT also has the additional plus of deploying a new 10x10 700 MHz Band 14 network layer for Firstnet and their own usage which makes usage of HPUE and is greenfield spectrum. 

[Paynefanbro]

16 minutes ago, lilotimz said:

I mean Verizon is deploying so called "5G" via higher order MIMO (4x4 MIMO / massive mimo + CA on all bands) & newer better performing antennas in addition to split sectors here. I doubt any carrier is ready to deploy NR anytime soon as most of it is appears to be backward compatible as software enhancement to a lot of existing equipment in addition to not being finished in terms of what will be in the final revision. 

If anything, I imagine whatever ATT does will mirror that of verizon which makes sense considering both have been undergoing another  full site revision to 4x4 MIMO via new radios and antennas. ATT also has the additional plus of deploying a new 10x10 700 MHz Band 14 network layer for Firstnet and their own usage which makes usage of HPUE and is greenfield spectrum. 

From AT&T's press release they seem to be suggesting that the things you have mentioned are being deployed right now but in preparation for NR and marketed as 5G Evolution.

Quote

To reach this ambitious milestone, we’ve taken a different approach to transforming our network. AT&T 5G services will be based on industry standards for 5G. To make this happen, we were one of the key drivers for standards acceleration last year. 

Because of that acceleration, 3GPP, the international wireless standards body, completed key elements of 5G new radio (NR) standards last month. With these specifications now available, hardware, chipset and device manufacturers can start development. This allows us to provide mobile 5G services sooner. We’re confident this latest standards milestone will allow us to bring 5G to market faster without compromising its long-term vision.

 

[ericdabbs]

Either way the full 5G NR standard will not be complete until June 2018.  What was completed during December 2017 was the non-standalone version of 5G NR which means it needs to rely on legacy networks like 4G to work but the standalone version of 5G NR (true 5G) will not be complete until June 2018.

[nexgencpu]

Sprint has mentioned multiple times that Massive MIMO towers will be software upgradable to 5G NR when ready. This would be a great strategy if indeed the case.