5G Rollout

AT&T today completed its promised list of 12 cities that

will launch its next-generation 5G network in 2018,

announcing that the final five destinations will all be in the

southern United States. The company also announced

early 2019 plans that will bring 5G to the top cities in

California and Nevada.

Two of AT&T’s 2018 5G launch cities are in Texas: Houston

and San Antonio. Florida, Kentucky, and Louisiana each

have one city — Jacksonville, Louisville, and New Orleans,

respectively. They join the previously announced cities of

Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City,

Raleigh, and Waco in forming a substantially but not

exclusively southern initial rollout for AT&T’s mobile 5G

Service.

Additionally, AT&T announced that four California cities —

Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose —

will be getting 5G service in early 2019, alongside Las Vegas,

Nashville, and Orlando. Interestingly, AT&T’s early 5G plans

appear to be substantially omitting New York and other

northeastern parts of the United States, possibly due to

easier or more progressive 5G-related deployment policies

elsewhere in the country.

Unlike rival Verizon, AT&T has committed to launching

standards-compliant mobile 5G services in 2018, beginning

with mobile hotspot “pucks” that will bring up to gigabit

speeds to wirelessly tethered laptops and other portable

devices. Smartphones compatible with the network are

expected to debut in early 2019. Verizon is debuting 5G

strictly in fixed home broadband hardware, starting with a

four-city lineup that includes Los Angeles and Sacramento,

Indianapolis, and Houston.