NEWSBYTE US telecoms giant AT&T has successfully completed what it believes was the “world’s first” millimetre wave mobile 5G browsing session on a mobile 5G network.
The session was carried out in Waco, Texas, on what will be a commercially available 5G device – the Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot. The telco said this would be the first standards-based mobile 5G device in the world able to access a live millimetre wave 5G network.
This 3GPP 5G NR standards-based mobile 5G connection used Ericsson equipment as well as the Netgear mobile device, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem, which is also claimed to be the world’s first commercial 5G NR modem with millimetre wave capability.
AT&T said it would remain on track to be the first to introduce mobile 5G services in the US on the Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot. The telco plans to roll out 5G services in at least 12 cities this year, and 19 cities by early 2019.
“Today’s news is a seminal moment in the advancement of mobile 5G technology,” said David Christopher, president of AT&T Mobility and Entertainment. “This proves we are well on our way to the promise of mobile 5G for consumers.”
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In related news, a new report says that up to 90 percent of 5G traffic could be mobile video.
According to Openwave Mobility’s Mobile Video Industry Council, the projection is based on current trends and the upward trajectory of mobile video traffic, which has grown more than 50 percent year on year.
According to a meeting of the council in London last week, the reason for the growth is “surprising”.
It said that for most operators, growth in mobile video from 2010 to 2015 came as a result of increased video watch times. But, since 2015, a significant amount of that growth has come from the move to higher bandwidth HD content.
John Giere, president and CEO of Openwave Mobility said: “When 4G was launched, it was all about mobility and connectivity. 4G provided the impetus for companies like Uber, Waze, and Spotify.
“5G will have far more data-intensive services that operators may struggle to grapple with. For example, augmented reality can be thirty-three times more data-intensive than 480p video, and once 5G comes to the fore, it is expected that OTT services will have more subscribers than pay TV customers.”