We examined AT&T’s 5G community for the primary time on a Galaxy S10 5G.
Logan Moy/CNET
It is becoming that I examined AT&T’s 5G community on the Warner Bros. studio in Los Angeles. Each Hollywood and 5G intention to take our wildest concepts and make them actual. In AT&T’s case, it is the promise of high-speed cell knowledge over a mobile community, which may revolutionize how we use our telephones, computer systems and linked units. Within the little time I spent testing 5G speeds on the AT&T Form convention at Warner Bros., I used to be blown away by how briskly they had been. They cruised previous the speeds we have witnessed in related early 5G assessments finished with Verizon and Dash.
AT&T is the third US service over the previous few months to provide us a style of the ability and potential of 5G. After a lower than stellar preview in April, Verizon flexed its blazing pace muscle mass in Could round choose components of Chicago on its 5G community. Later that month, Dash confirmed off its 5G community within the Dallas-Fort Price space, and it proved spectacular when it comes to its reliability and the scale of its protection — even when Verizon’s demo was sooner. AT&T’s strategy was to point out off a 5G-connected campus on the Warner Bros. lot. Think about, for instance, a movie crew with the ability to immediately share footage with somebody on the opposite facet of the lot throughout a lightning-fast community.
5G is the following technology of mobile expertise, and it ought to permit for sooner knowledge speeds with extremely low latency. The brand new technology of wi-fi innovation may result in a slew of makes use of which might be sensible, like downloading motion pictures to our telephones in seconds or streaming AR or VR video games with out lag — but in addition hopeful, like being a harbinger for applied sciences which have but to be envisioned. The latter may really revolutionize industries, from self-driving automobiles to distant medical procedures.
Watch this:
AT&T 5G community has among the quickest speeds we have…
9:40
Usain Bolt-fast 5G speeds
Armed with a Galaxy S10 5G cellphone, I ran a dozen pace assessments round a sq. again lot at Warner Bros. that was dotted with 5G millimeter wave nodes on rooftops. I used to be in a position to measure add and obtain speeds and to obtain hours of films and TV reveals in a matter of seconds. The takeaway? AT&T 5G Plus is quicker than The Flash when he has to pee. I acquired speeds that had been persistently over 1Gbps, usually hitting 1.6 to 1.7Gbps. That is six instances sooner than my house web.
I ran 12 assessments with the Speedtest.web benchmarking app to measure speeds, and eight had been over 1.4Gbps. The highest pace was 1.782Gbps, which is quicker than the highest pace of 1.3Gbps we skilled on Verizon’s 5G community in Chicago and properly above the 484Mbps prime mark we recorded in Dallas on Dash’s 5G community.
I downloaded and put in PUBG Cell, which is 1.96GB, in 27 seconds whereas the obtain and set up time was one minute and 23 seconds. The primary season of Blue Planet II (six hours of video) took 17 seconds to obtain with the Netflix app. And the primary 4 episodes of The Swamp Factor downloaded from the DC app took 52 seconds.
To see how AT&T’s 5G speeds evaluate to Verizon and Dash, learn: Verizon vs. AT&T vs. Dash 5G throwdown: The battle rages on.
From what I skilled on Saturday, 5G remains to be very a lot in its uncooked cookie dough state. Networks are nonetheless being constructed out, and the assessments I ran had been a small however great tease of what our future wi-fi connections ought to have the ability to do.
But it surely’s price noting that the speeds I skilled on AT&T’s 5G Plus can be found solely in small zones for companies like Warner Bros. and Magic Leap. Customers should wait till at the least 2020 earlier than they will expertise these insane speeds themselves.
Low latency is the true game-changer for 5G
Pace is only one a part of what makes 5G so interesting, although. On the Form convention, AT&T made a degree to emphasise 5G’s price to companies and builders. Interactive demos by corporations like Magic Leap, Nvidia, Nokia, Google and IBM gave me a tiny glimpse into how that 5G pace can carry inventive goals and utilities a step nearer to actuality. As I got here throughout these demonstrations, although, I started to note 5G’s true secret weapon: actually low latency. Latency is the time it takes your laptop or gaming console to ship knowledge to an internet server and get knowledge again. The much less time this takes, the higher.
A whack-a-mole-style recreation from Ericsson confirmed off how vastly completely different the latency is between 5G, 4G and 3G connections. As a substitute of moles, there was an arcade desk console that had small plastic circles throughout the highest. When a circle lit up, you merely pressed it to get a degree. Whereas it sounds straightforward sufficient, once I performed the sport I wore a VR headset with cameras on the entrance. I may see solely the stay feed contained in the headset, which was streamed over a 5G connection. Gameplay felt pure and simple till the connection switched to 4G. As soon as that kicked in, my timing was instantly off. Issues acquired a lot worse when the connection switched to 3G. This demo was such an efficient and enjoyable solution to present how 5G’s latency is loopy low, it turned considered one of my most memorable takeaways.
As well as, Nvidia confirmed off its GeForce Now, a cloud streaming service for video games. I performed Batman Arkham Metropolis over 5G and had no concept I wasn’t taking part in an area copy. Actions had been easy and reflexive gameplay felt no completely different than on a PlayStation.
Low latency will not make headlines, nevertheless it means companies can use cloud computing to create more-powerful experiences on our telephones and units. And I feel it is sensible that AT&T is rolling out its 5G community to companies and builders first. Again when Apple first launched the iPhone, there wasn’t an app retailer till a yr later. Maybe it might have been higher for the apps develop first, since they had been what made the iPhone really so modern.
AT&T is pushing companies and builders to find compelling makes use of for 5G. And people makes use of can be what in the end makes 5G go mainstream to customers. Till then, count on extra pace assessments and 5G telephones which might be geared toward early adopters.
Initially printed June 22, 11:41 a.m. PT
Replace, 6:48 p.m.: Provides particulars on speeds and demos.
Replace, June 25, four:30 a.m.: Provides further testing data
