AT&T announced it is rolling out trials for its Gigabit LTE coverage in Austin, Texas. It is calling this new network 5G Evolution, and it's the first of twenty cities to receive the trials throughout the year.
The gradual implementation of 5G Evolution marks AT&T's move to bring a faster network to its customers. AT&T is promising twice the data speeds on the new network. Indianapolis will be the next city to receive the trial, and thereafter, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco (among others) will also be partaking in the trial.
AT&T is calling it 5G Evolution but that is slightly misleading because this is not a 5G network—it's Gigabit LTE. It's the in-between step in making the jump from 4G LTE to 5G, but that won't happen for the next few years. T-Mobile are started its roll out of the same Gigabit LTE coverage earlier this year.
The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are the first devices to support Gigabit LTE, featuring the needed four-antenna system called 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM for carrier aggregation.
Expect faster speeds really soon
Expect nearly every flagship phone to be released this year to include the same 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM configuration found in the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus that can take advantage of the new Gigabit LTE networks. Once you get your hands on once of these new devices and AT&T's 5G Evolution arrives in your city, expect much faster speeds.
