AT&T said Friday that it dramatically expanded the number of markets served by its “5G Evolution” network technology.
The carrier said it upgraded cell towers in parts of 117 more markets to bring the total served by those technologies to 141 across the country.
AT&T Labs President and CTO Andre Fuetsch wrote in a blog post that the upgrades include LTE Advanced technologies — such as 256 QAM, 4×4 MIMO and 3-way carrier aggregation — as the company builds toward mobile 5G systems.
The company said its 5G Evolution capabilities can be twice as fast as standard LTE with theoretical peak speeds of 400 megabits per second on capable devices. Later this year, AT&T expects to expand the system to more than 500 markets.
“These technologies serve as the runway to 5G by boosting the existing LTE network and priming it for the future of connectivity,” Fuetsch wrote. “We can enable faster speeds now, and upgrade to 5G when it’s ready.”
The company also announced Friday that it incorporated LTE-LAA — with gigabit-per-second theoretical peak speeds — in the Boston, Sacramento and McAllen, Texas, markets. The company previously launched LTE-LAA in Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and San Francisco; by the end of the year, parts of 24 markets should feature that capability.
AT&T intends to introduce mobile 5G service in 12 markets by the end of the year.
Filed Under: Infrastructure
