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The new plan, called Project AirGig, was announced in a press release on Tuesday and AT&T says it comes as the result of over 10 years of research and 100 patent applications for new technologies. AirGig is still highly experimental, but would eventually bring customers wireless Internet speeds greater than 1 gigabit per second. For perspective, Google Fiber, the fastest commercially available Wi-Fi, provides speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second and is only offered in select urban areas. Most Americans still have Wi-Fi speeds in the tens of megabits, mere fractions of Google Fiber or AirGig.
The good thing about the system is that it would piggy-back off of existing infrastructure. Using a network of low-cost, patent-pending antennas and devices, AirGig would transmit a millimeter wave signal along (but not directly through) power lines. You would then get multi-gigabit Wi-Fi in your home without having a cord running to anything. Apart from allowing for super-fast home Wi-Fi, AirGig would also represent the beginnings a 5G cellular data network.
The bad news: AT&T said that AirGig won't even begin limited field trials until next year, which means widespread availability of the service could be years away.
