AT&T had some sort of 5G media session today where they talked at length about, well, 5G. Remember, everyone keeps telling us “5G is here” while then announcing when 5G will actually be here in the next breath. AT&T did that second part a lot this morning.
There were several press releases to walk through the future of AT&T’s 5G, but I’m sure you just care about numbers. So, to give you AT&T’s 5G news in the easiest digestible format, here are some bullets!
- AT&T’s nationwide 5G: Now covers more than 250 million people.
- AT&T 5G+ (5G mmW): Currently in 38 cities and 20 venues, but will expand to 40 cities and 40 venues by the end of the year.
- AT&T 5G+ in airports: The plan is to fire up 5G+ in 7 airports this year with the number reaching 25 by the end of 2022. The airports getting 5G+ include JFK, LaGuardia, Chicago O’Hare, and Midway.
- AT&T 5G C-Band plan: C-Band is the mid-band 5G that Verizon and AT&T will rely heavily on to truly compete in 5G, so we’re getting the first news about build-out. AT&T says they’ll have 70M to 75M customers covered with C-Band by the end of 2022 and upwards of 200M by the end of 2023.
And that’s pretty much it! See, 5G is here, but also not until closer to the end of 2023. Makes sense.
