As you might have heard, pretty much all the major carriers in the US have announced plans to launch 5G networks in the near future. That is well and good, but there is a problem and that is there are many phones, if at all, that support 5G, which means that even if there were to be a nationwide coverage of 5G tomorrow, no one would really be able to take advantage of it.
However it seems that carriers have a temporary plan that could solve the problem, and that is through hotspot devices. According to a report from Bloomberg, it seems that both AT&T and Verizon are considering this as it seems that the carriers are being realistic and that they do not expect to see 5G capable handsets anytime soon.
During an interview at MWC 2018, Verizon’s wireless chief, Ronan Dunne said, “I would expect that there are a range of handsets available in 2019 and some of those will be in the first half of 2019. If there’s anything available in 2018, it’s more likely to be a hotspot.” It is unclear as to when the first 5G smartphone will be launched in the US, but Chinese company ZTE had previously announced their plans to launch such devices by 2019.
We’ve also heard that Apple could be working with Intel on developing 5G modems for future iPhones, and that Samsung could be working on something similar for their 2019 smartphones.