AT&T Adds 40 New 5G Markets, Goes Nationwide

AT&T has pushed its low-band 5G network out with the quickness in recent months in a ramp-up to going nationwide. This morning, they added another 40 markets, which they’ve deemed to be enough to start using that term. AT&T 5G is now nationwide.

The 40 new 5G markets bring AT&T’s total to 395 and should cover over 205 million people. This new set follows the 165 markets they added in June alone.

Here is the list of new areas from today:

• Mohave County, AZ
• Little Rock, AR
• Polk County, AR
• San Miguel County, CO
• Daytona Beach, FL
• Jacksonville, FL
• Monroe County, FL
• Putnam County, FL
• Sioux City, IA-NE
• Garrett County, MD
• Battle Creek, MI
• Cheboygan County, MI
• Hubbard County, MN
• Koochinching County, MN
• Minneapolis, MN
• Leake County, MS
• Deer Lodge County, MT
• Great Falls, MT
• Colfax County, NM
• Grant County, NM
• Santa Fe County, NM
• Glen Falls, NY
• Adjuntas Municipality. PR
• Ceiba Municipality, PR
• Ciales Municipality, PR
• Cherokee County, SC
• Kingsbury County, SD
• Marshall County, SD
• Atascosa County, TX
• Burleson County, TX
• Chambers County, TX
• Cherokee County, TX
• Corpus Christi, TX
• Edwards County, TX
• Houston, TX
• Laredo, TX
• San Antonio, TX
• Box Elder County, UT
• Casper, WY
• Sheridan County, WY

Alright, so you live in an AT&T 5G area and want access, how does that work? Thankfully, AT&T isn’t’ charging people for 5G access on any of their current unlimited plans. Well, to be clear, their Unlimited Extra and Elite already have 5G access built-in, but AT&T will make it free for the Unlimited Starter plan on August 7.

Need a 5G phone? AT&T’s line-up is growing and there’s a good chance that if you go shopping for a new phone, it’ll have 5G. Currently, AT&T sells the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, Galaxy Note 10+ 5G, Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ 5G, Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy A71 5G, LG V60 ThinQ 5G, and LG Velvet 5G. They’ll also add the Galaxy Z Flip 5G on August 7.

What about prepaid? AT&T’s Unlimited Plus prepaid plan has 5G and they are preparing to announce more 5G news with Cricket here shortly. If you use Cricket service, August 21 is a day to mark on calendars, as that will be the day to activate a Galaxy S20 with 5G there.

Should you now prepare for gigabit downloads and the fastest cellular connections ever? Not so fast. As noted in the opening of this post, this is AT&T’s low-band 5G, which is basically a 4G LTE connection with lower latency. The super fast 5G will come should AT&T ever launch a mid-band 5G network or if they start investing (again) in 5G mmW.

// AT&T