ATT Keeping America Great, T+29 -- September 10, 2018

Pretty much a press release, but newsworthy nonetheless. From engadget:

Today, AT&T announced the remaining cities to receive mobile 5G through the end of 2018. These are Houston, Jacksonville, Louisville, New Orleans and San Antonio. 

This is in addition to the seven previously announced cities, which are Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Raleigh and Waco.

What's more, the company also revealed cities that would receive the service in early 2019: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose.

The company is also exploring millimeter wave 5G; AT&T was successful in making the first millimeter wave wireless 5G connection using standards-based production equipment. The company is planning on utilizing the 5G technology in densely populated areas; it can deliver high speeds under varying conditions.

With regard to 5G, it appears ATT focused on Texas first, and then California. Of the first 12 cities to get ATT 5G, six were in Texas or near Texas.

The second wave will focus on California.

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The Last Mile

First, we had the US Postal Service -- Blue and White -- required by law to serve all addresses in the United States, no matter how isolated or distant.

Then, we had UPS -- Big Brown -- that cherry-picked, I suppose, 90% of those addresses "easily" reached in the US, but letting the US Postal Service deliver to those addresses that are really, really isolated and distant.  

Now, we have Amazon Prime -- Big Grey? -- that carries the cherry-picking to the next level. I had read about the Amazon Prime initiative but had never seen an Amazon Prime van. Today, I saw an Amazon Prime van for the first time as well as a uniformed driver. My hunch is that Amazon Prime Transportation will focus on those residential and business locations near fulfillment centers, and fulfillment centers will be where "most" Americans live.

From the linked video, note:

• President Trump wants his postal service to charge Amazon more (this is not rocket science)
• it appears Amazon is buying top-of-the-line vehicles: fleets of Mercedes-Benz vans
• Amazon says it won't eliminate USPS or UPS .... yet
• but with drones .....?