AT&T reported strong third-quarter results and said that its midband 5G spectrum roll-out is happening faster than expected. The carrier started off expecting to cover 70 million potential customers with C-Band spectrum in 2022, but it has bumped that number up twice now: First to 100 million, now to more than 130 million POPs.
That is due to a combination of being conservative on setting its expectations in case supply chain issues were a problem and good execution on network deployment plans, plus the performance of massive MIMO radios and better-than-expected propagation of C-Band spectrum, explained Chris Sambar, AT&T EVP of network technology, on a call with journalists this morning. He also confirmed that AT&T has a live 5G Standalone core which is already carrying traffic for commercial customers.
