AT&T on Thursday named Indianapolis as the seventh city where the carrier will roll out mobile 5G services later this year.
AT&T plans to bring mobile 5G to a dozen cities by the end of 2018, and had previously announced Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Raleigh, and Waco as launch cities.
The carrier says it has invested nearly $425 million in its wired and wireless networks in Indy during 2015-2017, and laid the groundwork for 5G with the launch of its “5G Evolution” service in the city last year, which delivers gigabit LTE. AT&T has also deployed LTE Licensed Assisted Access technology in Indianapolis.
Bill Soards, president of AT&T Indiana, says the city was a “natural choice” for one of the company’s introductory 5G cities, citing the variety of businesses and the area’s tech community. He notes, “we expect 5G will eventually change the customer experience and provide new economic opportunities for your business.”
“We’re proud that AT&T continues to put Indianapolis at the top of its list when deciding where its latest technologies should be launched,” says Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett in a statement. “We were among the first for AT&T’s 5G Evolution network, and now the company is keeping its promise to bring 5G here. We look forward to seeing the impact this revolutionary technology will have on our city: helping us to attract economic investment and make local government more efficient.”
Indianapolis isn’t only on AT&T’s 5G list—earlier this month Verizon announced Indy as its fourth city to get the carrier’s fixed-wireless 5G residential broadband later this year. Verizon’s next-gen broadband uses the operator’s proprietary 5GTF specification, but Verizon has said it will be upgraded to the 3GPP 5G NR standard.
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