Tag: mmWave 5G mobile network technology

Article

AT&T adds new a Netgear 5G hotspot that you will actually be able to buy | CNet

From the horse’s mouth

AT&T

NETGEAR Nighthawk 5G Hotspot Pro Arrives at AT&T Sept. 18 (Press Release)

5G Product Page (announcing pending arrival of this Mi-Fi hotspot)

NETGEAR

NIGHTHAWK® M5 MOBILE ROUTER (MR5200) – Product Page

My Comments

Telstra has become the first telco in the world to offer a “Mi-Fi” mobile-broadband router that supports both 5G mobile broadband across all bands including mmWave on the Internet side and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity on the LAN side. This was offered when they initially launched their 5G mobile broadband service and this kind of coverage was important for Australian use where 5G services are likely to be deployed in sparsely-populated regional and rural areas.

AT&T now is offering to the general American public a Mi-Fi device that works on the full 5G waveband for its Internet connection side, and Wi-Fi 6 for its local network side. Here, that covers the lower frequencies of the 5G waveband along with the higher frequencies associated with mmWave coverage.

They previously offered a 5G Mi-Fi device but this was offered to a very limited customer base. Also Verizon offers a similar device with 5G and Wi-Fi 6 but their device only works the mmWave bands rather than the whole of the 5G band.

In addition, the Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Pro, also known as the MR5200,  that AT&T offers has an Ethernet LAN connection for use with printers, network-attached storage devices, desktop computers and smart TVs. It has USB-C connectivity, most likely for power and data (5G modem) functionality.

The Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Pro is fit for purpose with American emergency service thanks to its ability to work with FirstNet, which is AT&T’s LTE emergency-services communications network,

This device is expected to cost US$510 upfront or US$17 / month over 30 months before service costs. As well, AT&T are offering data service plans for this device with you paying US$60 per month for a 15Gb monthly data allowance or US$85 per month for 35Gb.

Their overage fee is US$10 for every 2Gb over your plan’s limit and, at the moment, they don’t have a “throttled bandwidth” option available for their plans in lieu of that. That will limit AT&T’s 5G mobile-broadband service’s role to a secondary or temporary Internet service. It is symptomatic of an American telecommunications and Internet-service that has become highly concentrated over the last five years with it heading slowly back to the “Ma Bell” days.

AT&T is rolling out 5G mobile-broadband coverage over most of the key cities in the USA that matter with this coverage increasing at the moment.

But AT&T’s Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Pro is one of the first devices of this kind offered to a dense Northern-Hemisphere country that ticks all the boxes for the latest wireless mobile-communications technologies. That is to provide 5G mobile broadband across the low frequency bands and high-frequency mmWave bands and supply this data across a Wi-Fi 6 LAN.

It is showing that mobile-telephony carriers are fronting up with Mi-Fi devices that work the 5G mobile broadband and WI-Fi 6 standards, leading to some very capable devices and services.

Article

Telstra now have a mmWave-capable 5G hotspot | PC World

From the horse’s mouth

Telstra

Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro router

Press Release

Product Page – has latest pricing and mobile-broadband service contracts

5G mmWave Mobile Broadband Technology

White Paper

My Comments

Telstra has fronted up with their latest premium portable mobile broadband router for the 5G mobile-broadband infrastructure. But this “Mi-Fi” known as the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro ticks all the boxes as far as being future-proof is concerned.

Here, on the WAN (Internet) side, this device supports 5G with mmWave technology while on the LAN (local network) side, it works on the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard for 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands thus bringing your mobile network up to date with the latest standards.Of course it can work with existing 4G LTE networks and exploits what Telstra has to offer in this context.  This has a 4500mAh battery that can be removed and can run for nine hours providing full data transfer. It can be charged via a USB-C connection according to the QC 3.0 protocol and the open-frame Power Delivery 2.0 protocol, meaning you can charge it with your brand-new Ultrabook’s charger or run it for a long time using a USB-C PD powerbank.

The Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro costs AUD$599 straight up. Or you could buy this device on a post-paid Telstra service plan for AUD$24.95 / month on 24-month plan plus mobile data plan the cost of the mobile-broadband data service.

What is this mmWave 5G mobile broadband all about?

The mmWave 5G mobile broadband technology is an extremely-high-frequency variant of 5G mobile broadband technology which works between 24GHz to 100GHz. Telstra’s initial trial run of this technology at Gold Coast worked on 26GHz. The same technology has been sued with various fixed point-to-point wireless links and satellite-Internet services but is use as a mobile broadband technology is what is being identified here.

Due to the very short wavelength, mmWave 5G technology will have a short operating range of a few hundred metres from the base station. This means that to cover a significant area, the service provider will need to install many “femtocell” base stations across the area and they will typically operate at a signal strength similar to a Wi-Fi access point or router. It means that the electromagnetic energy levels are 1000 times below the maximum energy level expected for safe operation.

Therefore mmWave 5G technology is pitched for operating environments where there is a high concentration of users so as to avoid “loading” very few base stations with many users, thus denying the users adequate bandwidth. This is a situation most of us will have experienced when attempting to benefit from an Internet resource on our mobile devices while on a packed commuter train.

Here, you will see this technology be used at busy public-transport interchanges including airports; event venues like convention centres or sports stadiums; or shopping centres. You may even find it being used in high-rise residential, commercial and hotel developments where there is expected to be many people within the development.

At the moment, Telstra has to license the necessary spectrum in order to set up a mmWave 5G service and will need to see other devices come on board prepared for this technology.

mmWave 5G mobile broadband will simply be pressed in to service as a complementary technology to the existing 5G mobile broadband technologies. In this case it is about highly-concentrated operating environments with many devices.