Back in January AT&T stated that people shouldn't get too caught up in the "hype" surrounding fifth generation wireless (5G). Fast forward a few months and AT&T is firmly establishing itself as one of the key leaders in said hype parade. The company this week stated that it's seeing speeds up to 14 Gbps in the company's early 5G trials. Tom Keathley, SVP of wireless network architecture and design for AT&T, told a conference this week that those speeds were obtained using a 15 GHz millimeter wave system.

"We ve been able to do 14 Gbps to a single user with that system," Keathley said.

"We ve actually tried multi-user MIMO and done 5 Gbps to two users. So really we ve validated the potential of this type of technology. Now there will be a great deal more testing that will continue before we re ready to actually operationalize this and install it in the network. But the initial tests show the technology can do exactly what s been touted.

Back in February AT&T announced that it was working with Ericsson and Intel to test 5G technology in the company's Austin network lab. AT&T also says it should begin outdoor trials sometime this summer.

AT&T announced in February it was collaborating with Ericsson and Intel to test 5G network technology in the operator's Austin, Texas, network labs starting in the second quarter of this year. The carrier also said it would conduct outdoor tests and trials of the technology this summer, with the end goal of providing speeds 100 times faster than existing 4G LTE technology.

Few debate that 5G should provide faster, more reliable networks with lower latency when we finally see broad commercial launches sometime around 2020. But the big question is one we won't seen answered for a few years: just how much will this advanced service cost US consumers?
read comment(s)