After years of development and hype about 5G potential, 2018 is likely going to be the year in which 5G wireless is officially deployed in the U.S And AT&T is predicting that it will be the first U.S. carrier to do so.
AT&T announced on Jan. 4 that it expects to deploy 5G in at least 12 cities across the U.S. by the end of 2018.
“5G will change the way we live, work and enjoy entertainment,” Melissa Arnoldi, president, AT&T Technology and Operations, said in a statement. “We’re moving quickly to begin deploying mobile 5G this year and start unlocking the future of connectivity for consumers and businesses.”
“With faster speeds and ultra-low latency, 5G will ultimately deliver and enhance experiences like virtual reality, future driverless cars, immersive 4K video and more,” Arnoldi added.
The key promise of 5G is faster wireless performance in the multi-gigabit-per-second range.
There are multiple standards and components that will help to enable 5G. Among them is the 5G NR (New Radio) specification. The 5G NR standard was developed by a multi-stakeholder group known as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which formally completed the first 5G NR specification on Dec. 21.
“The completion of the first 5G NR standard has set the stage for the global mobile industry to start full-scale development of 5G NR for large-scale trials and commercial deployments as early as in 2019,” the group stated.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
