AT&T details 5G Plus plans — what it means for your phone’s speed

AT&T details 5G Plus plans — what it means for your phone'due south speed

(Image credit: Henry T. Casey)

NEW YORK — As nosotros return to the road, AT&T is taking some fourth dimension to remind people about AT&T 5G, which now reaches 250 1000000 people. That trails T-Mobile 5G, which has the well-nigh extensive achieve of whatever U.S. carrier, just AT&T has plans to super-charge its network, with its faster 5G Plus service playing a cardinal function.

To illustrate what's in store, AT&T showed off a handful or two of experiences with partner brands, including some of its sister WarnerMedia properties, during a press event Wed (July 14). And 5G Plus was the well-nigh weighty of the announcements, with AT&T planning to bring the fast brand of 5G to more airports — where I don't recollect I've e'er had great service in my years of travel. AT&T's partner in this project is Boingo (which isn't to be confused with Gogo, the on-plane Wi-Fi).

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In a demo session using SpeedTest, AT&T reps showed off how AT&T 5G Plus download speeds tin can beat AT&T 4G by 12x— with 632 Mbps downward on a tablet side by side to a phone at 52.8 Mbps down. The deviation was more drastic on upload speeds: 35.5 Mbps on 5G Plus and ii.54 Mbps on 4G — which is near 14x equally fast.

AT&T 5G Plus won't exist in your local airport yet, though. AT&T is looking to go the service in seven major U.S. airports by the end of 2021, and 25 by the end of 2022. Individual airports called out include John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in New York likewise as Chicago's O'Hare International Drome and Midway International Drome

How does that stack up to AT&T'due south competitor's? Verizon's super-fast 5G Ultra Wideband service is already available in 13 airports every bit of the end of May — in parts of Chicago O'Hare, Columbus, San Antonio, Des Moines, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Dulles International, Chicago Midway International, McCarran International, Tampa International, Indianapolis International, Reagan International, and John Wayne Airports.

Other AT&T 5G partners

AT&T 5G event — (Epitome credit: Henry T. Casey)

During its 5G event, AT&T also highlighted a bunch of ways that 5G volition ameliorate things when you lot're on the become, though not all were exactly news or novel. AT&T and AR-enabled children's books visitor Bookful did announced a new partnership, with a new "shelf" of virtual books just for AT&T users. The information-heavy AR books, I'grand told, will accept greater fidelity and reduced latency by the high-bandwidth 5G. AT&T too showed off demos from IP from its parent company Warner Media, including Space Jam: A New Legacy AR lenses in Instagram, and a video of a proof-of-concept Harry Potter virtual reality feel.

Sports and 5G are also on AT&T'south agenda, as the carrier's adding more ways to track plays in games. I saw a demo of an upcoming improver to the Chicago Bulls official app, where timelines volition help fans go along track of what'southward gone on. A rep mentioned a feature AT&T would dearest to have, in which yous could tap on timeline entries to open up highlights — a feature that would do good greatly from both fast speeds and low latency. That's not available just yet, though.

AT&T says it'south looking to add similar features to WNBA apps, as it'southward the "official 5G Innovation Partner" for both the NBA and WNBA.

A Google Stadia demo immune me to take a spin on Mortal Kombat eleven to see how seamless cloud gaming is in 5G. While I won both of my rounds of online kombat in the game, I did notice a bit of lag in the 2nd fight.

AT&T 5G coverage expands

AT&T also made a few announcements about its evolving 5G coverage. The company noted its 5G coverage now covers more 250 million people across the land, and that its AT&T 5G Plus (mmWave) can exist establish in 38 cities and 20 venues in the country. Information technology should be abound to parts of forty cities and twoscore venues by the terminate of 2021.

Having finished field tests of C-Ring spectrum this past bound, AT&T will soon deploy the commencement twoscore MHz of the speed-boosting spectrum that it won in an FCC sale. This C-Band build programme aims to cover 70 to 75 one thousand thousand people by the finish of 2022, with coverage reaching 200 million by 2023.

AT&T 5G outlook

Personally, I've frequently turned off 5G on my phone almost of the time, choosing not to drain my device'due south battery for what'southward a small-scale boost in speed at this point. I'd even label myself a 5G skeptic, so this summer volition give me a few chances to see what the emerging wireless engineering is good for.

I'll be going to ii very densely populated venues over the coming months — Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and Madison Square Garden in NYC. Similarly, AT&T and Boingo didn't mention my airport of choice Newark Freedom International, in its listing of targets.

AT&T's 5G is bachelor in both New York and Las Vegas, but, frustratingly, the list of Available AT&T 5G Plus venues does not include either venue. Then, I'll see for myself whether or not I enable 5G, or keep it off on my iPhone 12 Pro Max.

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Henry is a senior editor at Tom's Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the by half-dozen-plus years. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Mag. He'south also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.