Industry Voices—Entner: AT&T’s 5G service in Dallas delivers impressive speeds

We are at the dawn of a new generation with 5th generation networks launching. As with every new technology, some launches are smoother and others are rougher. Since we are all doubting Thomases, we travel to the places where these networks are actually up to see with our own eyes if they work.
During the first week of April, I was in Dallas to check on the status of AT&T’s 5G launch. Since smartphones with integrated 5G have not been launched yet, we tested AT&T’s network with their Netgear 5G hotspot. I conducted tests at approximately 50 meters, 100 meters and 200 meters, and tried to determine the cell edge to check the state of current technology.For consistency purposes, I used Ookla’s Speedtest for all tests. To give you a benchmark, my Verizon Fios fiber internet connection is 879 Mbit/sec at 1 ms latency connecting to the Starry server in Boston. My AT&T Wireless LTE service on an iPhone X Model A1865 (Qualcomm chip version) in Boston was tested with 89 Mbit/sec and 58 ms latency connecting to the AT&T Wireless server in New York.