American multinational telecommunications AT&T has revealed more information on its plan to trial its 5G network service this year. The wireless carrier has already launched its trial for 5G speeds in Austin and Texas.
During the first half of 2017, AT&T revealed that they will begin the trial for a number of residential customers in Austin. The trial will let them access the recently launched streaming TV service "DirecTV Now" through a fixed 5G wireless connection.
The test will help them to assess the mmWave technology with regards to handling video traffic. Through the New Radio specification which is being developed by the 3GPP standards group, more mobile and fixed wireless 5G trials are expected to begin in the second half of 2017, as revealed by Android Authority.
New 5G networks are expected to provide speeds at least 10 times and maybe 100 times faster compared to the available 4G networks these days. The upgrade is expected to connect at least 100 billion devices with download speeds reaching a whopping 10 gigabits per second, Reuters reported.
AT&T's fiber network is also now being improved with a current support speed of up to 1Gbps, which is available to 4 million locations across 46 U.S. metro areas. The company is planning to increase the numbers to 12.5 million locations across 67 metro areas by mid-2019.
In July 2016, the company's rival, Verizon Communications Inc. revealed that it has also laid out its plan to conduct a trial regarding its 5G network this year. However, news update to Verizon's testing is still unknown.
AT&T is a premier integrated communications company which delivers advanced mobile services, next-generation TV, high-speed internet and smart solutions for people and businesses. In 1876, the same year when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone was the foundation of the AT&T company.
Watch AT&T's DirecTV below:
