AT&T to bring mmWave 5G to more airports by the end of 2021
5G is a bit confusing right now. For most people, they see 5G and assume it’s all the same, but the reality is that there are two types of 5G in use at the moment – sub-6GHz and mmWave, with the former having an advantage with wider coverage, but the latter having the advantage of being faster.
For those who fly a lot, you might be interested to learn that AT&T has announced that they will be partnering with Boingo Wireless where they will be bringing mmWave 5G to seven airports by the end of the year. In a way, mmWave makes sense in a place like an airport because it’s not as big as a city, which means that it would be easier to blanket areas with 5G connectivity.
Like we said, mmWave has the advantage over sub-6GHz by being faster, but the downside is that its range is not so good. It could be useful in places like an airport where it could allow people with 5G capable handsets to hook onto a faster network to download things before they board their planes, like shows, music, documents, and so on.
Seven airports might seem like a little, but the carrier plans to expand to even more, as many as 25 airports, by the end of 2022, so if your airport isn’t part of this rollout, hopefully you’ll be covered next year.
Source: The Verge