AT&T's 5G Data Speeds Hit 10 Gbps in the Lab as Testing Expands

[MacRumors]

AT&T this morning announced that new 5G data tests are hitting the speeds estimated earlier in the year by the carrier, with results coming in at over 10 gigabits per second in some cases.

According to AT&T, the early tests show "positive signs" for customers in the future who would use the multi-gigabit speeds and low latency of 5G, which the carrier even hints as a possible benefit if included in self-driving cars. Overall, results from AT&T's tests describe speeds that are "10-100 times faster than today's average 4G LTE wireless connections."

"We've seen great results in our 5G lab trials, including reaching speeds above 10 gigabits per second in early tests with Ericsson," said Tom Keathley, senior vice president - wireless network architecture and design, AT&T. "Nokia is joining to help us test millimeter wave (mmWave), which we expect to play a key role in 5G development and deployment. The work coming out of AT&T Labs will pave the way toward future international 5G standards and allow us to deliver these fast 5G speeds and network performance across the U.S."

In addition, the company announced today that Middletown, New Jersey will be joining Austin, Texas as a testing ground for the carrier's 5G trial run. The small-scale tests help AT&T -- along with partner Nokia -- "simulate real-world environment scenarios" to see what kind of strain the service can handle before a wide launch. Labs are also being set up in Atlanta and San Ramon, California to begin software architecture work on 5G's infrastructure.

As it stands, 5G is still a ways off. AT&T admits that the company -- and any carrier interested in the new wireless technology -- must wait for a new standards-setting process that is expected to be completed by a group of telecommunication associations, known as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, in 2018.

Following that, AT&T's own 5G network rollout is expected a few years later in 2020, and Apple's adoption is completely unclear in terms of which potential future iPhone would support 5G. Despite being so far off, AT&T hopes its tests in Middletown and Austin help introduce a "strategy for future deployment" of 5G once the standard becomes widespread.

Article Link: AT&T's 5G Data Speeds Hit 10 Gbps in the Lab as Testing Expands

 

[sp3k0psv3t]

That small allotment they give you will go all that much quicker now lol.

 

[HarryT]

Now an average of 22GB dat used per month in 5 years doesn't seem like a mad estimate!

 

[yeah]

10 gigabytes in 8 seconds... (Assuming full speed downloads)

Wow.

 

[gotluck]

dont really care about speeds that high, rather useless. lower my bill and give me unlimited without any tricks. work on your heavily congested areas like orlando instead

 

[krazifour]

Great, so now I can blow through my monthly data allowance in a mere second or two.

 

[Xgm541]

10gbps, although likely unrealistic in "real world" usage, will mean my mom who is on the 200MB plan will have the ability to run through her entire limit in 0.16 seconds.

 

[Rocketman]

Apple has a facility in Austin. This will be a service not formatted like current capped services. You will pay an access fee and the devices that use it will not be traditional computers but more akin to IoT. The much higher bandwidth makes time on tower for each user be far shorter. That is what increases total user count and total bandwidth capacity. The limit is never the backhaul, but the airwaves bandwidth.

 

[avanpelt]

If we're able to pull 10 Gbps (theoretical) from cell towers within the next five to ten years, I fully expect my current 1 Gbps fiber service with AT&T to be upwards of 50 to 100 Gbps by then. And to think I started connecting to online services in 1992 at a whopping 2400 baud (on a good day). My, how things have changed.

 

[GSPice]

AT&T could give me 1000 Gbps and it wouldn't mean a steaming pile of goat phlegm to me.

Coverage. Cost. Coverage. Cost. Coverage...

 

[Carlanga]

"Get your 10GB connection for your 500kb monthly data plan" AT&T 2019

 

[2457282]

At these speeds, I could replace my Comcrap cable and finally cut the last "cable" into the house (cable TV and Phone already gone). All that we need is reasonable plans that would allow me to do this that would be competitive with the Comcrap rates.

 

[A MacBook lover]

Meh, I'll wait for 6G

 

[TurboPGT!]

I'm sure it will work just as well outside the lab /s

 

[keysofanxiety]

dont really care about speeds that high, rather useless.

Wuuuh? What I wouldn't give for 10Gb/s data speeds...

My 15" 2012 cMBP only gets 40MB/s download speed wirelessly due to it not having 802.11ac. Even when plugged in via Ethernet and downloading Steam games at 90MB/s leaves me slightly dissatisfied. Waiting 3 minutes?! No way! I want it quicker! Faster!

 

[WordsmithMR]

You guys realize that just because you can hit 10gbps does mean you'll actually use that much in one shot right?

 

[gsmornot]

If we're able to pull 10 Gbps (theoretical) from cell towers within the next five to ten years, I fully expect my current 1 Gbps fiber service with AT&T to be upwards of 50 to 100 Gbps by then. And to think I started connecting to online services in 1992 at a whopping 2400 baud (on a good day). My, how things have changed.

In order to make this work at the speeds advertised the lines to your house will need to support the full speeds. You may not be able to subscribe but 5G is not a tower service. The range is 100's of feet so the fiber to your house is the reason this will work at all.

 

[macduke]

Can someone please help??

I am scared to death of 5G after what happened to me yesterday.

So I was just minding my damn business, shopping for a bed for my kid, when suddenly we started getting a bunch of alerts that our data went over (which is weird since we're early in the cycle). I pull out my iPhone 6s, and it's hot and only has a few percent battery left. This was mid-afternoon and I had barely used the phone all day. Damn thing burned through 9GB in about a half an hour or so! Was on the phone with Apple support for hours last night. Ended up burning through another 3GB in short bursts doing testing.

After all that, I had to do a restore and was up until 1am trying to fix and get my Watch set back up. Let it download from the cloud overnight. This morning I tested it again. It seems like Notes or something sets it off when it tries to sync. Issue is not resolved. I called Verizon this morning and they were really nice, hooking me up with a 24GB data plan for free, and saying I can keep it after this month for only $16/mo more. Not bad for quadrupling my 6GB data! But could you imagine an error like this happening on 5G? It could use TBs of data so quickly!

The weird thing is the Apple support guy had never seen this problem before, and couldn't find anything similar from doing a search in his system. Has this happened to anyone here?? We noticed that I had gone to share an 8min 4K video accidentally to a note at some point in the past few weeks, and perhaps it was stuck on that. That file was 2.9GB, but even after deleting it the phone kept using data even after force quit, removing all notes and turning it off and back on, rebooting the phone, and doing an iTunes restore. I think something is jacked with my iCloud account because I noticed recently that it won't send two-factor authentication codes to my iPhone 6s, but they go instantly to my iPad Air 2. The Apple guy also couldn't get the mobile diagnostics to load up and send him a report. And for some reason, it started filling up my iCloud with some kind of unknown data, because I went from 175GB on Saturday morning to 195GB when I was talking to the guy last night. Anyone ever have this happen? Please DM me so we don't derail this thread. I'm going to try calling Apple again here in a couple hours.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I'm currently geting an average around 40Mbps dwn and 20Mbps up on T-mobile 4G. That's more than good enough for me for mobile usage.

Can't imagine any real usage for 10Gbps, besides torrents. Most servers have upload caps way below the average speeds we already have.

On my home internet, I have 300Mbps down and 30Mbps up. I can have multiple TVs streaming, torrents running, two consoles online gamming while downliading huge games in the background, with about 12 devices connected, and it still won't make a noticeable dent on my connection.

 

[gsmornot]

I'm currently geting an average around 40Mbps dwn and 20Mbps up on T-mobile 4G. That's more than good enough for me for mobile usage.

Can't imagine any real usage for 10Gbps, besides torrents. Most servers have upload caps way below the average speeds we already have.

On my home internet, I have 300Mbps down and 30Mbps up. I can have multiple TVs streaming, torrents running, two consoles online gamming while downliading huge games in the background, with about 12 devices connected, and it still won't make a noticeable dent on my connection.

What you do with your connection today does not describe what you might do when this is ready for full-time use. This is about 4 years out, did you need what you have now 4 years ago?

 

[ghostface147]

Now with lower data caps!

 

[gotluck]

Apple has a facility in Austin. This will be a service not formatted like current capped services. You will pay an access fee and the devices that use it will not be traditional computers but more akin to IoT. The much higher bandwidth makes time on tower for each user be far shorter. That is what increases total user count and total bandwidth capacity. The limit is never the backhaul, but the airwaves bandwidth.

I'm not so sure about that. Maybe not in Austin but I wager in many places the limit is indeed the backhaul.

 

[Deadman64]

Great, so now I can blow through my monthly data allowance in a mere second or two.

I might be thinking about this wrong but if you use your phone the same as you do now wouldn't it be the same amount of data used, just faster loading times?

If I load a webpage with pictures and it uses 1MB of data on my current 4G phone, would it not just download that 1MB webpage faster on 5G. How do you use data faster? (I guess the real exception would be video streaming quality would be a lot higher resolution but you could set that to a lower res?).

 

[gsmornot]

I might be thinking about this wrong but if you use your phone the same as you do now wouldn't it be the same amount of data used, just faster loading times?

If I load a webpage with pictures and it uses 1MB of data on my current 4G phone, would it not just download that 1MB webpage faster on 5G. How do you use data faster? (I guess the real exception would be video streaming quality would be a lot higher resolution but you could set that to a lower res?).

You are correct and they are trying to be funny. Speed is delivery and has nothing to do with the amount of data you use. You could potentially consume more because you can get more in less time but assuming habits remain the same its just less wait for the same amount of data.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

At these speeds, I could replace my Comcrap cable and finally cut the last "cable" into the house (cable TV and Phone already gone). All that we need is reasonable plans that would allow me to do this that would be competitive with the Comcrap rates.

Really? LTE is already faster than the broadband I'm getting from Comcast.

The reason I haven't cut off Comcast is because it's cheaper to have a 6 GB plan from AT&T while I'm away from home + unlimited from Comcast while I am home than I would be to get a 50 GB plan from AT&T.

I just need AT&T to reduce their rates for me to drop Comcast entirely.