As much as you’re hankering for 5G, it might not arrive quite as quickly as you’d like it to.
America’s two biggest U.S. wireless carriers, AT&T and Verizon, are unlikely to have much in the way of true 5G service deployed by the end of 2019, perhaps backing the view that Apple won’t have support in iPhones until fall 2020.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg revealed on Wednesday that the carrier currently has a lack of standards-ready hardware, meaning it won’t be able to expand home service beyond parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento until the second half of 2019. The carrier has no coverage map on its website.
Wireless carrier AT&T currently has 5G networks in 12 cities, such as Houston, Atlanta, and New Orleans, but has kept quiet on exact coverage and performance.
AT&T is apparently experiencing issues with its equipment partners and the fact that they’ve been unable to deliver on their promises. Motorola and Samsung seem to have delayed standardized home routers to focus on phones, and AT&T may have launched using early firmware, capping performance.
AT&T has stated that it won’t have nationwide mobile 5G until early 2020, and has taken a fair amount of flak for using a “5G E” label for what is really 400-megabit 4G.
A number of reports have stated that Apple will wait until 2020 to ship 5G-capable iPhone handsets. While rival companies have released 5G handsets that are already on the market, both 5G-compatible modems and networks are currently in their infancy. Apple’s preferred modem provider, Intel, seems unlikely to have a 5G chip ready for the market until 2020.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider, PCMag, and VentureBeat