AT&T is testing a new technology that's at least 10 times faster than 4G LTE
AT&T will perform field tests of its 5G network in Austin, Texas by the end of 2016.
That makes AT&T the second major US mobile carrier to start testing the new 5G mobile network, as Verizon laid out is plans for testing 5G in September.
5G is the successor of 4G LTE, and it's said to be incredibly fast. "We expect 5G to deliver speeds 10-100 times faster than today's average 4G LTE connections," AT&T said in a press release.
Referring to the megabits-per-second data speeds we get today on 4G LTE, AT&T added that "customers will see speeds measured in gigabits per second, not megabits."
AT&T also said that 5G reduces "latency," which is the time it takes for a website or video to show up after tapping a link or pressing the play button.
Higher speeds and reduced latency means a more stable experience when using data on your mobile devices, especially when it comes to streaming high-quality music and video.
A faster mobile network also opens doors for new, data-hungry applications and technologies, like streaming virtual reality and high-resolution 4K content, connecting self-driving cars, remote robotics, and cloud applications like Google's app streaming.
AT&T expects the first phase of 5G to become an approved standard by the international standards body, 3GPP, by 2018, but that doesn't mean 5G will be widely available by that time. Details on 5G's full rollout are still sparse.