In a show of confidence in 5G, AT&T announced the expansion of its fixed wireless 5G trials to business and residential customers in Waco, Texas; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and South Bend, Indiana by the end of the year. Trial participants in the new markets may include universities, hospitals, churches, restaurants, and other small businesses. Participants will be able to stream premium live TV via DIRECTV NOW and experience faster broadband services, all over a 5G internet connection.
AT&T has been running a 5G field trial in Austin, Texas for some time. In June, this trial was expanded to included fixed 5G connections to various types of businesses and residences. The company said this testing reveals insights into millimeter wave (mmWave) performance and propagation, including variance for foliage, building materials, device placement, the surrounding environment and how weather impacts the signal and system. The testing showed speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second and latency rates well under 10 milliseconds for the radio link at customer trial locations in Austin. AT&T is also conducting outdoor pre-standards mobile 5G testing.
AT&T said that the expanded field testing in Waco, Kalamazoo, and South Bend will increase the number of participants and expand the physical footprint. The company hopes to begin standards based deployment as early as late 2018.
“In Austin, we see all types of weather and substantial foliage,” said Marachel Knight, senior vice president, Wireless Network Architecture and Design, AT&T. “Taking our fixed wireless 5G trials out of the lab and into the real world helps us learn important factors about mmWave and 5G. And in doing so, we’re learning how to better design our network for the future.”
“We’ve been testing and demonstrating 5G technologies with AT&T for over a year and now we’re expanding the scope of our trial to AT&T customers in Waco,” said Joakim Sorelius, head of Product Area Network Systems at Ericsson. “Ericsson is providing an end to end solution that includes new 28GHz radios, virtualized RAN and a full 5G virtualized Core. By testing the technologies in the live commercial-like environment and trialing new 5G use cases together, we are able to gain valuable experience in preparation for commercial deployments based on 3GPP New Radio (NR) technology.”
http://about.att.com/story/att_expanding_fixed_wireless_5g_trials_to_additional_markets.html
