Verizon will launch home 5G everywhere mobile service is available
Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) may be rolling out 5G at a pokey pace, but at least you won’t have to choose which kind of 5G you get. Consumer division chief Ronan Dunne told investors that fixed 5G Home service will “in due course” be available in every market where mobile 5G is available. It’s “one network,” he said — there’s little stopping Verizon from offering both. The carrier is planning a “full” launch for Home late in 2019 using the official 5G standard, so the synchronicity might begin relatively quickly.
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The initial service ran on an in-house approach to 5G and offers typical speeds of 300Mbps. It won’t compete with gigabit fiber, but it’s faster than many landline connections and, if you get an indoor antenna, let you set up yourself.
The main catch, as always, is the slow pace of 5G deployment. Verizon’s current 5G is available in parts of just 10 cities, and it can only roll out so quickly when the ultra-wideband technology requires an extensive number of cell sites to provide solid coverage. That reach should extend to 30 cities before 2019 is over, but that still means it could be a long while before 5G Home comes to your neighborhood. Still, that beats having to deal with the limited coverage of FiOS and other wired high-speed services.
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