AT & T offers 5G services in 19 cities, but no phone is able to use it.

The state of 5G continues to be a disaster, as the major US telecommunications companies compete for the first to deploy shaky versions of next-generation network technology across the country. To date, AT & T has 19 cities served by the 5G service, but once again, there is a big problem: there is no smartphone yet that can use it. In addition, the only true 5G device available from AT & T, a mobile access point that it provides, can not yet be purchased in stores.

The only two 5G smartphones that will be available to US customers so far this year are Verizon's exclusive Samsung Galaxy S10, which does not even have a definitive release date, and the exclusive Verizon LG V50. Sprint. (Samsung's Galaxy Fold is also expected to be available in a 5G version, but no carrier announcements have been announced yet.) This has not stopped AT & T from using this arbitrary and largely meaningless milestone. a marketing opportunity. "In 19 cities across the country, AT & T is the only carrier to offer a mobile 5G service to businesses and consumers, far ahead of our competitors," reads the press release.

AT & T promises customers access to the 5G variant of the S10 later this spring, as well as another Samsung 5G smartphone later this year, which we can only badume, for the moment, is referring to to the next Samsung Galaxy Note 10 or newer. S10 variant supports the mmWave spectrum and the sub-6 spectrum, thanks to the new Qualcomm X55 chipset.

But until then, the only device that can access its network is the Netgear Nighthawk 5G hotspot. The device is only available for certain trading partners and some customers of the first 5G markets, but not in stores. Also, even if you, as a regular customer, want to buy it without going through AT & T's testing program, which requires you to register and be selected, it would cost $ 500. The hotspot contains the Qualcomm X50 chip, which means it only supports the short-range 5G mmWave on the AT & T network. Presumably, AT & T plans to launch an updated hotspot with the X55 later. this year, which should support both with wider coverage. (The X50 hardware supports both mmWave and sub-6, but not on the AT & T network architecture as it is designed.)

AT & T is far from the only one to blur the waters of 5G. Verizon may have the first 5G commercial phone exclusive to its network, but the company's deployment in 5G is much less robust than that of AT & T. While AT & T launched the 5G in 12 cities at the end Last year, Verizon was just starting to offer its version of the service in "select areas" in Chicago and Minneapolis.

The edge Last week, we went to the metropolis of Illinois to try it ourselves. The speeds were certainly fast, but the coverage was terribly bad. You can also access it only through the medium Motorola Moto Z3 with the 5G Moto Mod. Similarly, Verizon relies only on the short-range mmWave spectrum. So you have to be physically close to one of its 5G nodes in downtown Chicago to access it. Go around the corner or place a hard surface that is not made of glbad between you and the knot. You may then descend to LTE.

The 5G strategies of both companies are therefore a bit of a marketing disaster at the moment, and surely lead to some confusion. The 5G will surely arrive in the coming years with smartphones equipped with the appropriate 5G modems to support the standard and offer the promised high speeds. But until now, AT & T and Verizon were fighting for the finish line of a race to which both companies were attached. Meanwhile, as customers, we are stuck with silly tricks like AT & T's imposed 5G E logo, which, if you remember, is not really a 5G, but another trick aimed at give AT & T the impression that it has happened in the future faster than its business. rival.