AT&T, which in April announced that as part of its 5G Evolution program it planned to offer higher speed services for wireless customers in 20 metro areas by the end of the year, has launched 5G Evolution in parts of Indianapolis, providing faster wireless speeds and enhanced services for customers.
The new wireless capability is now available in select areas of Austin, where AT&T wireless customers with a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+ smartphone are able to access faster 5G Evolution Internet speeds. The new service is due to be expanded to Indianapolis in the summer, with launches in additional markets expected to be announced over the coming months, including in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and San Francisco.
In Indianapolis, and in select areas of Austin, 5G Evolution allows customers to experience advanced entertainment and connectivity on compatible devices, with the deployment of multiple network upgrades enabling wireless download speeds twice as fast as on AT&T's 4G LTE network.
AT&T stated that it is currently deploying equipment, investing in spectrum and technology, and laying the foundation for the evolution to 5G while 5G standards are being finalised. The company is working with multiple global technology companies to prepare 5G for commercial deployment.
The company noted that it has worked with the city of Indianapolis to ensure that its network and infrastructure is ready to support 5G technology. AT&T stated that in addition to adding next generation technologies to the wireless network in Indianapolis it has invested more than $350 million in the Indianapolis wireless and wired networks from 2014 to 2016.In 5G Evolution metro areas AT&T has upgraded cell towers with LTE Advanced technologies such as 256QAM, 4 x 4 MIMO and 3-way carrier aggregation (CA). Combined with other upgrades, these upgrades enable faster speeds and an improved customer experience.
By the end of 2017, AT&T expects to deploy LTE-License Assisted Access (LAA) and 4-way CA in certain parts of 5G Evolution metros. The company recently tested LTE-LAA technology in San Francisco, where it achieved peak speeds of more than 750 Mbit/s, and plans to expand LTE-LAA testing to additional areas of San Francisco and Indianapolis locations.
AT&T is also installing small cells in Indianapolis and plans to add more in the future. The small cells use a centralised RAN (C-RAN) architecture, designed to allow capacity to be added across hundreds of cell sites quickly and efficiently.
