AT&T’s Rolling out Ultra-Fast 5G Service in 13 U.S. Cities Right Now

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AT&T is now rolling out its low-band 5G network to 13 more cities in the U.S., bringing the total number of markets up to 32, the carrier announced in a press release.

Notably, the new locations include large metropolitan areas like Boston, Atlantic City and St. Louis. But AT&T is also bringing its low-band coverage to smaller cities like Dayton, Ohio and Wichita, Kansas.

Those regions join existing cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee.

Here’s the full list of cities getting the coverage.

  1. Bakersfield, California
  2. San Luis Obispo, California
  3. Santa Barbara, California
  4. Oxnard, California
  5. Modesto, California
  6. Liberty, Georgia
  7. Wichita, Kansas
  8. Boston, Massachusetts
  9. New Bedford, Massachusetts
  10. Frederick, Maryland
  11. St. Louis, Missouri
  12. Atlantic City, New Jersey
  13. Dayton, Ohio

It’s worth noting that AT&T has several different variations of 5G and 5G-like service. The expanded coverage today is for its sub-6GHz, low-band 5G network.

The carrier has also made its mmWave 5G+ available in 35 cities as of the writing of this article. Unfortunately, that service is unavailable to public users and carries a number of disadvantages, including the fact that it doesn’t pass through buildings or walls that well.

AT&T’s low-band 5G is slower and more similar to T-Mobile’s 600MHz networks. It’s likely that the low-band 5G is going to make up the bulk of most carriers’ 5G networks in the U.S.

Of course, if you see a “5GE” icon on your own device, it doesn’t mean you have 5G. As we’ve previously covered, AT&T’s 5G Evolution service is actually just a brand name for upgraded LTE coverage.

And even if you are an AT&T customer who lives in one of the markets with actual 5G, you’ll still need a device that’s compatible with the new network standard to actually use it.

Currently, that only includes Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G device. Apple is working on its own 5G iPhones, but they’re not expected to hit the shelves until the fall.

Only customers who have an AT&T Unlimited Extra or Unlimited Elite plan will be able to use the 5G networks (but at no additional cost). Do know that you’ll burn through your data caps pretty quickly though.

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