AT&T has announced a trial of fixed-wireless 5G in South Bend, Indiana, utilising its full-fibre broadband network and millimetre-wave (mmWave) spectrum.
Unlike lab and field trials, the carrier is delivering 5G fixed-wireless services to several residential premises in the area, with one household seeing speeds of 1Gbps and latency of under 20 milliseconds.
President of AT&T Technology and Operations Melissa Arnoldi said in a blog post[1] that this allows the customers to use "bandwidth-heavy applications simultaneously and seamlessly -- something that would be nearly impossible with current LTE technologies".
AT&T has also announced that it will be launching its full-fibre network in Bowling Green, Kentucky; Florence, South Carolina; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The carrier had previously announced the AT&T Fiber areas[2] of Amarillo, Beaumont, and Waco, Texas; Evansville, Indiana; Gainesville and Pensacola, Florida; Springfield, Illinois; Northeast Mississippi; and Panama City.
AT&T Fiber -- which offers speeds of up to 1Gbps -- has so far reached more than 9 million areas across the United States, with plans to reach 14 million locations in 84 metro areas by mid-2019.
"Our fibre expansions across the nation will help allow AT&T to achieve its plans to be the first US carrier to provide mobile 5G service, which we plan to begin introducing in 12 cities by the end of this year," AT&T Indiana president Bill Soards said.
According to AT&T, it is also the largest fibre provider for business solutions in the nation, serving more than 1.8 million business customer locations.
Speaking to ZDNet in February, AT&T SVP of Wireless Network Architecture and Design Igal Elbaz said the carrier is ahead of the curve when it comes to