The $23 billion spectrum licenses AT&T purchased from EchoStar have given it a significant boost in 5G performance across the continental United States. It has activated wireless spectrum, the frequencies used for data transmission. AT&T subscribers who have a 5G capable phone or an AT&T Internet Air home internet plan should already see a significant boost in speed.
The company says customer download speeds can increase 80% when connected to the wireless network in areas with the upgraded spectrum. For AT&T Internet Air subscribers, the speed increase is up to 55%. The higher capacity opens up more possibilities for gaming, streaming content and accessing other high-data apps, as well as connecting rural customers without access to home fiber internet options.
The upgrade arrives, at least so far, without a price increase for existing customers. Verizon and T-Mobile instituted three-year and five-year price locks in 2025, so hopefully the improved AT&T infrastructure does not trigger higher rates. Based on the company's announcement, however, the expanded spectrum also benefits AT&T internally, making its network more efficient, lowering the need to build new cellular towers and encouraging customers to subscribe to both mobile and home internet services.
It also boosts the capabilities of the AT&T FirstNet program that enables first responders to have guaranteed communications even when capacity is restricted, such as during a natural disaster. Over a period of "a few weeks," the company has deployed hardware to 23,000 cell sites that enables midband 3.45 GHz spectrum in more than 5,300 cities across 48 states, according to AT&T.
What is the significance of midband? 5G networks work across a swath of spectrum frequencies. High-speed millimeter-wave signals offer the fastest speed and performance, but they have limited range and don't work well with obstructions, such as buildings. Low-band 5G offers the slowest speeds but works over a broader area. Midband is a balance of the two, offering faster speeds than low-band with larger coverage.
From the perspective of the customer, this should translate into faster and more consistent network access. So if you are an AT&T subscriber, you will see "5G+" in the status bar of your phone when you are connected to a millimeter wave or midband network, or "5G" in a low-band area. (You may also see "5GE," which is actually 4G LTE and not 5G.)
To give you a single data point, I was sitting in my home office in Seattle using an AT&T-connected phone with full bars and "5G+" displayed. I ran the Ookla Speedtest app and got download speeds of nearly 500Mbps and upload speeds of around 80Mbps. That is comparable to many home internet speeds (and echoes the performance I saw on a recent United Airlines flight using the onboard Starlink Wi-Fi). (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, the same parent company as CNET.)