U.S. Wireless Carriers Plan to Launch 5G With ‘Pucks’ Not Phones
- First 2018 consumer gear on 5G will be portable hotspots
- 5G phones won’t arrive until the 1H of 2019, says Verizon exec
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AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., conceding that phones won’t be available in time for the launch of fifth-generation mobile service this year, plan instead to offer 5G through portable hotspots called pucks.
“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,” Verizon’s wireless chief, Ronan Dunne, said Monday in an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “If there’s anything available in 2018, it’s more likely to be a hotspot.”