The 5G hotspot uses Wi-Fi 6 and can support up to 32 Wi-Fi devices
AT&T has announced the Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot Pro, the provider’s first 5G hot spot for consumers. Before, only businesses had access to the company’s 5G hot spot, and the only consumer product offered by AT&T the Netgear Nighthawk M1supports 4G technologies, but not 5G technologies.
Now, though, for the somewhat steep price of just over $500, any ol’ user can get their hands on a next-generation hotspot beginning September 18.
The Nighthawk Pro works with AT&T’s 5G network, both the low-band and high-band iterations of it, and supports AT&T’s dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS). The hot spot uses Wi-Fi 6, of course, and can support up to 32 Wi-Fi devices. It also sports a 5,040 mAh battery and has both an Ethernet port and two TS-9 antenna ports to extend its range.
However, it is still unclear if the device supports the upcoming C-Band being auctioned in December.
There are some questions around AT&T’s hot spot service plans, which offer only 15 GB or 35 GB of data, while the provider’s “unlimited” plans offer 30 GB of hotspot data, suggesting that there is not yet a data plan cut out to handle the massive data usage of being the primary connection within a home.
Last week, Verizon launched a second-generation 5G hot spot, the Inseego M2100, which has Inseego’s proprietary antenna design and Qualcomm’s QCOM Snapdragon X55 5G modem, and will directly compete with AT&T’s model.
