AT&T plans to test 5G networks in the field this year

NetEase Technology News February 12, 2016, according to "USA Today" report, AT&T said that it is ready to conduct field testing of 5G networks before the end of this year. Previously, another US operator, Verizon, announced a similar plan.

AT&T said that 5G is 10 to 100 times faster than current 4G LTE technology. This means that users can download a TV episode in less than 3 seconds. Starting in the second quarter, AT&T will work with Ericsson and Intel to develop a 5G solution, and field testing will be conducted at a "fixed" location in Austin, Texas.

Verizon also announced in September last year that it will begin 5G field testing in 2016 and has been working with Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung to achieve this goal. However, the 5G commercial release will take some time, and 2020 may be a reasonable time. A formal agreement on 5G technology has not yet been signed, but standards are expected to be introduced in 2018.


Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics, said: "People are over-promoting the next generation of networks, and we are likely to make 5G a meaningless ad. 5G involves fundamentally rebuilding network provider transmissions. Bit and byte mode, yes, the network speed will be faster, but also reduce the cost to get more response."

Matt Grob, Qualcomm's chief technology officer, also believes that 5G is not just fast, "has the ability to support more reliable communications, low-latency communications and is very secure. In addition, this technology will automatically adapt to small Low cost sensors and other things, and greatly extend battery life.

AT&T reported that its wireless network data traffic grew more than 1500 times in 2007-2015, mainly driven by video consumption traffic. The company expects that video-related data traffic will account for more than 60% this year. And 4K video, virtual reality, autonomous vehicles, robots, smart cities and the Internet of Things will bring the next wave of growth.