REAL 5G FINALLY ARRIVES

Nothing causes an argument in the mobile industry quite like 5G. For the better part of the latter half of this decade, 5G has been touted as the beginning of a truly always-on, super-fast mobile broadband connection that would replace the landline once and for all, even in fixed applications. But there’s been one problem: Nobody could agree on what 5G actually was.

That changed in 2018. We now have a specification, as well as actual technologies that will meet these specs. While much of this year was spent on field testing, 2019 will likely bring the first 5G-capable smartphones as well as actual service. AT&T is already rolling out standards-based 5G, and Verizon will launch service sometime in the middle of 2019, both based on mmWave technology.

AT&T’s 5G cell equipment shown off at the Qualcomm 5G Summit

T-Mobile on the other hand is using its low-band spectrum to launch 5G

. While it will be slower than others, it will be more reliable as it doesn’t require “line of sight” to the transmitter, a major disadvantage of mmWave. And as long as its proposed merger with Sprint goes through, the company will likely be the first to offer “nationwide” 5G service — especially in suburban and rural areas.

By the end of 2019, it is all but certain nearly every major metropolitan area and its nearby suburbs will have access to 5G from at least one carrier and possibly several. Rural locales will probably have to wait in many cases well into 2020 — there are some locations that don’t even have LTE service yet. But 5G will finally become a reality in 2019, and it’s going to be game-changing.

source: Digitaltrends