A White Paper on 6G reveals that in the U.S., the 7GHz spectrum range is seen as favorable for the next iteration of wireless connectivity.
It feels that we have gone from 3G connectivity to 5G very fast. Back in 2008, T-Mobile was the last of the four major carriers to press the button launching its 3G service in Las Vegas. That was the year that Apple released the iPhone 3G replacing support for AT&T’s slow-as-molasses EDGE network with 3G connectivity. In 2010, Sprint was the first carrier to offer 4G speeds using WiMAX technology. The first phone to connect to the service was the HTC Evo 4G.
In December 2010, Verizon became the first U.S. wireless provider to offer 4G LTE service to customers. Tests showed that Verizon’s 4G LTE was faster than Sprint’s WiMAX 4G and you might recall that the first 4G LTE-enabled smartphone was the HTC ThunderBolt. As for 5G, AT&T was the first U.S. carrier to offer the service in December 2018 although the signal was received via a mobile hotspot.
The first U.S. wireless provider offering 5G service to smartphones was T-Mobile.
