Nearly a month ago, AT&T had announced its plans to start offering its 5G service in a dozen markets within the United States before the end of this year. But based on remarks made by Randall Stephenson, the chief executive officer of the wireless carrier, it is looking likely that the first 5G compatible devices will not be smartphones.
Stephenson has said that people should instead expect 5G pucks, which literally look like pucks (like those used on hockey games) but can also serve as mobile hotspots. Really? Pucks? But hear us out -- it just might make sense. The truth of the matter is -- it will take some time for chip manufacturers to build 5G ready radio chips for mobile devices, and even more time for phone makers to incorporate those chips into their respective 5G compatible handsets. Sure, the 5G service will already be commercially available from mobile operators, but smartphones that can tap into those networks will arrive much later.
So the 5G pucks are actually an excellent solution. Basically what they will do is supply 5G connection speeds to consumers’ mobile devices, much like how portable modems do today. Yup, it is far from being the real thing yet (smartphones with built in 5G compatibility will be capable of so much more compared to today’s devices connected to a 5G puck), but it will give users an idea of what the coming 5G era will bring to their daily lives.
Meanwhile, another major US wireless carrier, Sprint, has also provided new updates to its 5G plans. During a recent quarterly earnings conference call, Marcelo Claure, the chief executive officer of Sprint, stated that the mobile operator’s mobile 5G service (via its 2.5 GigaHertz spectrum) will be debuting some time within the first six months of next year.
According to Claure, Sprint is currently teaming up with chip giant Qualcomm and a number of mobile manufacturers and networking solutions providers in order to prepare the launch of a nationwide mobile 5G offering during the first half of 2019. If Sprint has its way, it should be able to start rolling out its service before or right around the time rival T-Mobile commercially deploys its own 5G service. T-Mobile is targeting to begin its roll out next year, and complete the deployment by 2020. Industry leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T, however, have made significant progress in their respective 5G endeavors -- the Big Red will be releasing its commercial 5G within this year, while AT&T is looking to launch its mobile 5G in 12 markets in 2018, as mentioned earlier in this post.
