AT & T says 5G will be ready for homepage

AT & T CEO Randall Stephenson today said that it would be much easier.

With 5G, "Stephenson said during a earnings call today," I will be very surprised if … pricing in the future. (See transcript.)

Some customers are willing to pay a premium for 500Mbps to 1Gbps speed and so forth, "Stephenson continued. "And so I expect that to be the case.We are two or three years away from seeing that play out."

In general, wireline home Internet services have been priced based on speed-a subscriber country more for 100Mbps than 50Mbps, for example. Cellular pricing is usually the same no matter what data speeds you get, but customers have to pay for each gigabyte. Meanwhile, mobile carriers have historically imposed far stricter data caps and overage fees than home Internet providers. There are some overlaps between pricing structures, especially as home Internet providers imposes data caps, but in general customers have paid for speed in home Internet and for the amount of data in mobile.

AT & T has experience with both types of pricing, as it offers mobile service nationwide and wireline service in 21 states.

On the mobile side, AT & T has re-embraced the smartphone. But it is also a question of smartphone plans that let us use slow speed at speeds of just 128kbps.

AT & T mobile already has some speed-based differentials in its plans. For example, AT & T limits video streaming to 1.5Mbps (about 480p quality). What Stephenson described today would seem to go beyond that.

Pay more … and then more?

A key question for 5G and for higher speeds or if it would be just one or the other. Given that Stephenson says AT & T's 5G pricing will look "something like the pricing regime you see in fixed line," we can get some hints from how AT & T treats home Internet today.

The answer-not surprisingly-is that AT & T home and for unlimited data. AT & T fiber-to-the-home costs more for gigabit speeds than it does for 100Mbps, and AT & T DSL lines.

This is just about paying for overhead. AT & T home AT & T's home Internet data caps. AT & T home Internet customers get 1TB per month and pay another $ 10 for each additional 50GB block. Customers can alternatively upgrade to unlimited home from AT & T for an extra $ 30 a month.

If 5G mobile services are priced the same way, you'd pay a higher base rate for faster speeds and rack up additional charges.

Another unknown is what throttling policies would apply to 5G. With 4G, AT & T customers who purchase unlimited data can use 22GB a month before facing potential slowdowns, though these slowdowns are only required in congested network areas.

Speeds will vary by lot

Justifying speed-based pricing on mobile is trickier than with home Internet, because speeds vary as smartphone users move around and less crowded. Obviously, mobile carriers can easily use their speed, preventing them from getting higher speeds. But the variability of mobile networks will not be available in all areas.

Home Internet services can be more easily delivered than mobile networks. Early 5G deployments and statements from the highest levels of 5G speeds will be reserved for small pockets of densely populated areas. That's because 5G's highest speeds will be available only on millimeter-wave spectrum, with signals that are easily blocked by barriers and other obstacles. Given that, paying extra for faster 5G speeds will not necessarily mean you'll get those speeds all the time.

AT & T's first 5G users are businesses

So far, AT & T's real 5G-ie.The AT & T renamed "4G E" -is available in 19 US cities, but it can only be used with a Netgear Nighthawk mobile hotspot. Given that AT & T does not offer 5G smartphones yet, this early 5G service is being used by customers to set up Wi-Fi networks.

Businesses are the first customers, Stephenson told investors today:

From a standpoint, what we're seeing in terms of adoption tends to be business. In fact, it's exclusively business for us right now. It's serving as a LAN replacement product. And we're having really impressive demand, where we turn to the 5G service from businesses basically saying, "We want to put a switch in," and it becomes their LAN replacement.

AT & T's 5G launched in December for "select businesses and consumers," with AT & T saying that it will become widely available this spring. On general release, "We will be able to get the nighthawk for $ 499 upfront and 15GB of data for $ 70 a month on compatible plan and no annual commitment," said AT & T said at the time.

Verizon is the only major carrier offering 5G on a smartphone, but Verizon's mobile 5G is only in Chicago and Minneapolis, it's barely available in these cities, it requires a 4G Motorola phone paired with a 5G hardware attachment, it requires an unlimited data plan, and it costs $ 10 extra a month. Verizon also offers 5G home Internet, based on a non-standard version of 5G, for $ 70 a month in small parts of a few cities.

T-Mobile has said it will not charge more for 5G.

Stephenson today said that AT & T will have nationwide 5G coverage next year. Because Stephenson said, "It's going to be a change for five years."