Following AT&T’s recent announcement that it is planning to launch a ‘low-band’ 5G network in the coming weeks, it has now been established that the telco will be using the 850MHz band to support the service. According to Fierce Wireless, which cites a company representative, AT&T is confident that the 850MHz band will be able to deliver 5G coverage to customers situated up to two miles from cell sites.
AT&T – which has operated a commercial millimetre wave (mmWave) 5G network since December 2018 – will launch low-band 5G services in the following markets: Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rochester and San Diego. Future rollout destinations have been named as Boston, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, New York City, San Francisco, Birmingham, Bridgeport, Buffalo, Louisville and San Jose.
TeleGeography notes that the 850MHz band was previously used for 3G services. AT&T’s 3G networks will be shut down from February 2022 and in March 2019 the telco confirmed that it was in the process of ‘redeploying spectrum currently used for 3G services to support mobile services on our 4G LTE and 5G networks based on market-by-market evaluations’.